4 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. IV, No. 1, 



others, and the first offspring shows the characters of the starain- 

 ate parent in a marked degree, especially in the character of seeds 

 and frnits. This immediate, or direct effect of pollen upon the 

 character of seeds and fruits Focke, (5) has termed xenia, a phe- 

 nomenon which has long been more or less puzzling to botanists 

 and plant breeders. Just how such an effect was brought about 

 was not definitely understood, and it is onl)- a few years since that 

 any phenomenon has been known which could be called upon for 

 a reasonable solution of the problem and that a tentative expla- 

 nation has been offered. In 1898 Nawaschin (10) reported the 

 process of double fertilization in Lilium martagon and Fritillaria 

 tenella. Guignard (6) soon followed with a full description of 

 the process, adding figures of the more interesting phases, and 

 claimed that the process was not peculiar to the Liliaceae but 

 very general in the Phanerogams. In corroboration of this 

 author's statement, the process has been observed in many plants 

 by a number of investigators. The corn plant, however, is the 

 one among the many observed in which the process of xenia is 

 well established and belief in the phenomenon seems to rest mainly 

 upon its constant occurrence in this plant. Vilmorin (12) 

 ob-served xenia in corn as earh- as 1866. Hildebrandt also report- 

 ed it the following 3-ear and in 1872 Koernicke (8) made a similar 

 report. These authors used seeds that were pure so far as known. 

 Some j-ears later American botanists took up the subject for 

 investigation. Sturtevant in 1883 made the first report. Burrill 

 reported the process in 1887; Kellerman and Swingle in 1S88, and 

 McCluer in 1892. But some doubt attaches to their findings because 

 the seeds used were not known to be pure. Moreover, the process 

 was apparently contrary to certain well-established laws of repro- 

 duction and embryology, errors could easily have been made in 

 conducting the experiments; and until some explanation could be 

 given for the phenomenon, botanists looked upon the matter with 

 some suspicion. The explanation was left to DeVries (3). In 

 a recent preliminary article ' ' On the hybrid fecundation of the 

 Albumen," he suggests the act of double fertilization as explana- 

 tory of the phenomenon of xenia ; and although as late as 1900 

 no detailed researches on the embryology of corn or any of the 

 cereals or gras.ses had been made, nor any direct observations that 

 were conclusive that double fertilization occurred in corn, Webber 

 (13), holding the same opinion as DeVries (3), proceed to con- 

 duct some experiments on the subject. His seed corn was pure 

 so far as known, and the results, published in 1900, elicited his 

 conclusion "that xenia does occur in maize, whatever its 

 interpretation may be." Correns (2) about the same time 

 reported observations practicall)- similar to tliose of Dc Vries. 

 The following year Guignard (7) removed all doubt of the occur- 

 rence of double fertilization in corn by his publication of a paper 



