INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1910-11. 47 



Personal Assistant in the investigation of the inheritance 

 of characters in this crop which, as was expected, has 

 turned out to be a somewhat complex subject. The object 

 of this work is to discover the mode of inheritance of the 

 various leaf characters in particular so that new and 

 improved varieties can be made by hybridization. Practi- 

 cally nothing is known on this subject, and the scientific 

 breeding of tobacco is still in its infancy. 



Fibres. — San {Crotalaria juncea, L.). — Several new 

 varieties of this crop have been isolated during the year, 

 and interesting results have been obtained with this crop 

 as a green manure. These are being repeated during the 

 next cold weather at Pusa. 



Patwa (^'Hibiscus Cannabinus, L.). — A paper on this crop 

 in India is now about to appear in which the work done 

 during the past four years at Pusa is summed up. Natural 

 cross- fertilization takes place in this crop to a considerable 

 extent, but it has been found possible to eliminate to a great 

 extent the effects of this by removing the hybrids during 

 the seedling and vegetative stages. Possibly these methods 

 can be extended to other Indian crops in which crossing 

 takes place and can be made use of on seed farms. 



Pollination. — The importance of a close study of the 

 methods of pollination in the crops of India and the bear- 

 ing of these matters on the growth of seed for distribution 

 to the cultivators in India were dealt with in a memoir 

 published during the year. This matter was referred to 

 in the previous annual report. The paper in question has 

 attracted a good deal of attention, and the subject has been 

 developed still further during the year. Natural cross- 

 fertilization has been found to occur in til {Sesamum indi- 

 cum), rahar (Cajcmus indicus), niger {Guizotia Abyssinica) 

 and in Jute {Cor chorus capsularis). Some progress was 

 made during the year in working out the pollination details 

 in the various oil-seed crops grown in India. 



Programme of work for 1911-12. — 1. Training. — The 

 training of advanced students in this section will be con- 

 tinued, 



