114 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



to grow. Such a head would consist of four to six spikelets with 

 eight to twelve flowers. The head of the plant intended to be used 

 as the pollen parent was then brought, the anthers removed from 

 the flowers of the proposed female parent, and the anthers from 

 the head of wheat intended for the male parent were removed and 

 placed within the glumes of the emasculated flower. It was recom- 

 mended that two persons work in cooperation, one to hold open 

 the chaff-scales or glumes, the other to remove and replace the 

 anthers with a pair of forceps. The head thus pollinated was 

 then fastened to a stake and enveloped in wire gauze as protec- 

 tion against being rubbed against by other heads, and against 

 birds. It is interesting to note the subsequent care with which the 

 hybrid seeds were treated : 



"As soon as the grains obtained by crossing become dry, place them 

 in thumb pots in a garden, protecting them from birds and insects by 

 sprigs of furze spread on the surface, and by a few coal ashes in the 

 bottom, and afterwards remove the plants to where they were intended 

 to be grown. This plan prevents the intermixing of kinds, and generally 

 the attacks of insects residing in the soil, or frequenting the air, in the 

 early stages of the plants' growth." {ib., p. 24.) 



"The inflorescence of oats and barley being wintered with wheat, the 

 crossing of these cereals can be effected in like manner as with wheat." 

 {ib., p. 24.) 



. Knight's experiments in the crossing of wheat are quoted by 

 Shirreff as follows {ib., p. 27) : 



"I readily obtained as many varieties as I wished, by merely sowing 

 the different kinds together; for the structure of the blossom of this 

 plant, unlike that of the pea, freely admits of adventitious farina, and 

 is thereby very liable to sport varieties. Some of those I obtained were 

 excellent, others very bad, and none of them permanent. By separating 

 the first varieties, a most abundant crop was produced, but in quality 

 was not equal to the quantity ; and all the discarded varieties again and 

 again made their appearance. It appeared to me an extraordinary cir- 

 cumstance, that in the years of 1795 and 1796, when almost all the whole 

 corn of the island was blighted, the varieties thus obtained only escaped 

 in this neighborhood when sown on different soils and situations." 



Knight is referred to by Shirreff as "the first individual in 

 Britain known to have crossed wheat." {ib., p. 26.) 



A Mr. Raynbird, who competed for a medal given by the High- 

 land Society of Scotland with a wheat obtained by hybridization, 

 known as "Raynbird's Hybrid," was, as Shirreff says, 



". . . perhaps the first person who offered a hybrid or cross-bred wheat 

 to the notice of the British farmers." {ib., p. 8.) 



