276 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



d. Darbishire. 



Darbishire, in 1908 (1), appears to have been the first, since 

 the re-discovery of Mendel's papers, to demonstrate further the 

 facts brought out by Macfarlane's earliest investigations. Dar- 

 blshire's experiments involved the crossing of a variety of peas 

 in which the cotyledons were green and round (Eclipse), with 

 one in which the cotyledons were yellow and wrinkled (British 

 Queen). In the (F^), out of 579 starch grains in the cells of the 

 cotyledons, 356 were single and 223 compound. The singles were 

 more nearly round than in the Eclipse parent, the single starch 

 grains (av. of 102 grains), as compared with an index of 66:14 

 in the length-breadth index, being 92 : 19 in the Eclipse parent 

 (av. of 232 grains). In the compound grains, the commonest 

 types were those with 4, 5, or 6 component parts (7 and 8 being 

 rarer), 2 and 3 being intermediate in frequency between those 

 with 4, and 5 and 6 on the one hand, and 7 and 8 on the other. 

 Grains with 7 and 8 component parts were not much larger than 

 those with 4, 5, and 6, while grains with 2 or 3 were always 

 found to be conspicuously smaller than those with 4, 5, and 6. 

 In the British Queen parent, the grains (all compound, an occa- 

 sional one only entire), have 2-8 component parts. 



32. Spillman. Mendelian Results with Wheat, prior to 1900. 



In 1901 appeared a brief but interesting and somewhat note- 

 worthy paper on inheritance of characters in wheat hybrids, by 

 W. J. Spillman, then of the Washington State Experiment Sta- 

 tion, now of the United States Department of Agriculture. The 

 paper, read before the Fifteenth Annual Convention of the Asso- 

 ciation of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Sta- 

 tions, November 12-14, 1901, represented a definite effort to ob- 

 tain results of a quantitative character. The results, so far as 

 they were attained, are stated in somewhat Mendelian fashion, 

 although a knowledge of the then just published reports of Men- 

 del's investigations had not yet reached the author. Nageli, Sachs, 

 and Darwin are quoted. 



The study was based upon an undertaking to obtain a winter 

 wheat for Eastern Washington. Some 15*0 varieties were tried, 

 but none were found satisfactory, the worst common defects being 

 shattering of the grain, lodging, susceptibility to smut (bunt). 



