384 Miscellaneous, 



those two plants, He has confirmed this view by actual experiment, 

 fertilizing ^. ovata with the pollen of wheat, and thus producing 

 artificially the u^. triticoides. 



M. Godron concludes, therefore, that " the observations made by 

 M. Fabre on the jE. triticoides do not in any manner prove that our 

 cultivated wheat has for its origin the ^. ovata, nor that one species 

 can transform itself into another." Some friends of his in German 

 journals go further, and assert that he has positively disproved M. 

 Dunal's conclusions. 



We have nothing to say as to the transformation of one " species " 

 into another, for, according to our notion of the meaning of the word, 

 this circumstance would but prove that the two supposed species were 

 in fact only varieties or races more or less permanent of one species. 

 We would, however, make some observations on the remainder of 

 M. Godron' s paper. 



It is admitted that Triticum sativum and Mgilops ovata are strictly 

 congeners, as confirmed by the form of the caryopsis ; that ^. triti- 

 coides is the first known instance of a hybrid among grasses ; that 

 M. Fabre raised from seeds of a wild JE. triticoides plants which 

 produced perfect seed, which he again sowed and continued the 

 operation during twelve successive generations ; that during these 

 twelve years' careful cultivation the plants gradually acquired more 

 and more the character of wheat ; and that M. triticoides is occasion- 

 ally, though rarely, found in sterile places surrounded by vineyards. 



But M. Godron observes that there were abundance of wheat-fields 

 in the neighbourhood of the spot where M. Fabre carried on his 

 experiments, from whence the pollen might have been wafted so as to 

 fecundate his plants and produce that gradual assimilation according 

 to the laws of hybrids. So also in the case of the jE. triticoides in 

 the midst of vineyards, there was quite wheat enough cultivated in 

 the surrounding country for some of the pollen to have found its 

 way over to the parent plant of ^. ovata. 



Even admitting this extraordhiary dispersive power of the pollen 

 of wheat, and that JE. triticoides as now produced is always of 

 hybrid origin, it appears to us that this very great facility of natural 

 hybridization in a family where it is so rare as to have been hitherto 

 unobserved, would appear to prove much rather that the two plants 

 had a common origin, than that they are really distinct species. 



Another point much relied on by M. Godron is, that the first start 

 from jE. ovata to jE. triticoides is very great, and that there are no 

 intermediates between two plants so distinct as to be universally 

 admitted as species. That such should be the case with M. Godron's 

 artificial crops would naturally be expected, but that it is so in the 

 wild plant remains to be proved. Most of the supposed species of 

 jEgilops, in the South of Europe, are very variable, and run so much 

 one into another, that few botanists can agree as to what are or are 

 not species amongst them. 



With regard to the rarity of jE. triticoides, in a wild state, we 

 may observe as a well-known fact, that when aberrant forms of natural 

 species are produced from causes unknown to us, and therefore termed 



