PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 157 



"There appears to be no necessity for the creation of new plants, so 

 long as one has not already recognized, in those already present, essen- 

 tial defects or disadvantages, or on the other hand marked advantages." 

 (lb., p. 145.) 



It is interesting here to remember that it is undoubtedly to a 

 natural cross of these two species that the Grimm variety of al- 

 falfa is due, which has enabled alfalfa growing to be carried into 

 the northern border states of the western United States, and the 

 western provinces of Canada. 



Speaking of the crossing of agricultural plants in general, 

 Lecoq remarks : 



"It certainly remains highly regrettable that thus far there has been 

 so little concern about hybridization of agricultural plants, and that it 

 has been simply left to chance to get varieties, while it would have been 

 so easy [referring here to beets] to institute with discretion crossing 

 experiments which certainly would be a new cause of agricultural 

 riches." (ib., p. 305.) 



Lecoq lived before the days of the breeding of the cereals. Al- 

 luding to the breeding of wheat, he says : 



"It remains one of the extraordinary human facts, that such a simple 

 operation, exacting neither time nor money, which can have such large 

 results, has thus far not been attempted on a plant upon which so many 

 families of all European lands are fed." (ib., p. 401-) 



In conclusion it may be mentioned that Lecoq crossed a variety 

 of corn called Zea rostrata (corn with pointed or beaked kernels) 

 with ordinary yellow and red corn, and says : 



"I completely destroyed the beak. Every single variety of this fine 

 plant brings out some kind of a change through hybridization, either 

 in the form of the cobs, or through the variegation of the kernels, or 

 through entire metamorphosis of the color." {ib., p. 398.) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Duchartre^ P. E. 



Rapport sur la question de I'hybridite dans les vegetaux, 

 mise au concours par I'Academie des Sciences. Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, 4me Serie, 19:125-34. 1863. 



Godro?i, D. A. 



(a) De I'hybridite dans les vegetaux. Nancy, 1844. 



