40 REPORT ON SHIRREFF'S BEARDED WHITE WHEAT. 



seeds gave rise to inconstant and worthless varieties, and in this 

 instance the breeding plants may have been too distinct in 

 habits. My latter attempts have been more successful, having 

 obtained several good varieties which reproduce themselves with 

 constancy from seed, although they generally prove inconstant. 

 The first plant from a seed formed by artificial fecundation 

 seldom shows much peculiarity, and it is not until the second 

 generation that varieties usually appear. In 1859 I fecundated 

 several florets of Shirreffs bearded white with pollen of an ear 

 from the same root. In 1860 the like operation was repeated 

 on an ear of a resultant plant, and from three seeds so obtained 

 I had in 1861 three plants dissimilar in appearance. One had 

 bearded chaff, one bald chaff, and a third semi- woolly bald chaff 

 — the chaff of all the three being white. The grains of the diffe- 

 rent plants were dissimilar, one being long and narrow, one oval, 

 and the third round. All had varieties in the second generation, 

 and I have not succeeded in rendering any of the three varieties 

 constant on reproduction from seed, but I soon expect to accom- 

 plish this. In 1860 1 also fecundated Shirreffs bearded white 

 with pollen from Talavera, and from the resultant plant had 

 high coloured seeds with bearded and bald chaff, from which 

 proceeded in the second year several white seeded varieties, 

 which proved constant on reproduction from seed. 



3d, Sports, or natural varieties. With all plants, and especially 

 with such as have been long cultivated, varieties appear from 

 time to time. Considering the treatment, extensive growth, and 

 usefulness of our cereals, new varieties are seldom noticed, and 

 too little cared for when observed. It is, perhaps, by means of 

 sports that varieties of wheats have been found adapted to so 

 many climates and situations over the globe, and it is from this 

 source that my selections have been chiefly made. Sports in a 

 growing crop can be obtained and tested without much trouble, 

 and generally prove more satisfactory than varieties from other 

 sources. This may, perhaps, arise from insects and other agencies 

 disturbing the plants' organs of generation, and in this view little 

 distinction can be drawn between artificial fecundation and 

 natural — sporting having from both sources found varieties con- 

 stant and inconstant on reproduction from seed. 



In 1860 an ear was picked up in a crop of Shirreffs bearded 

 white, which from a peculiarity in the chaff I was led to view 

 as having arisen from natural fecundation of one variety with 

 another. Owing to the ravages of wire worm and otherwise, only 

 thirteen plants from the seeds of the ear survived the winter, 

 and out of this crop there were five distinct shades of chaff all 

 different from the chaff of the parent ear. Continuing to grow 

 year by year, up to the present time, small portions of produce 

 descended from the original ear, there are now chaff of all 



