PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 153 



cross, giving a uniform and strictly intermediate progeny. In the 

 more extensive report (7c, 356-61), reciprocal crosses made in 

 1878 were reported between T. sativum and T. turgidum, durum, 

 polonicum and spelta. All the possible combinations between sati- 

 vum and the other four were attempted with success, except in the 

 crosses upon T. polonicum $ . The reciprocals with this form as 

 $ succeeded. Crosses (reciprocally) with T. monococcum failed. 

 In the pubescent, white-chaffed, wheat-spelt crosses, the spelt char- 

 acters were reported as being the most strongly characterized in 

 the descendants. All combinations of color and pubescence of 

 glumes (except pubescence in the speltoid forms), is reported. 

 Second-generation results are given of crosses between "Chiddam 

 d'automne," a soft, white-chaffed, beardless wheat, by "Ismael," a 

 pubescent, hard wheat, and between "Ble Seigle," a red, pubescent, 

 beardless variety of T. sativum, and "Ble Buisson," a poulard 

 wheat. From the first-named cross, Vilmorin reports the second 

 generation in 1880 as giving the most diverse forms, no two alike, 

 nor a single one reproducing the characters of either of the original 

 parents. Not only were noted soft and hard wheats, but wheats 

 resembling poulard (T. turgidum), and more or less the spelts 

 (T. spelta), which, he remarks "is surprising in the progeny of a 

 soft and of a hard wheat." Of the cross with "de Beauce," the 

 second generation gave "the most curious mixture of wheats, dwarf 

 and tall as to straw, bearded and beardless, with heads extraordi- 

 narily slender or extrem.ely compact." (p. 359.) There also appeared 

 a form resembling T. durum, but beardless. The cross involving 

 "Ble Seigle" and "Ble Buisson" is reported as giving rise, in the sec- 

 ond generation, to "wheats of all sorts, bearded or beardless," but 

 among which "one notices a very marked tendency to approach 

 forms derived from T. spelta'' Among these there was "even a 

 branched spelt issued from two wheats with simple heads." These 

 cases appear to Vilmorin to be cases of the "disorderly variation" 

 reported by Naudin. He remarks, "Similarly to Naudin, it is in the 

 second generation that I observe this variation." (p. 359-) Vilmorin 

 further comments upon the appearance, among the progeny of the 

 two wheats, of characters not those of either of the parents, but 

 belonging to other wheat forms. The general conclusion is, "If 



