136 University of California Publications in Botany [Vol. 5 



V. EXPERIMENTAL WORK 1911 



1. Cleaning, Sowing and Germinating of 1910 Seed 



The .V. acuminata seed was cleaned in April. 1911. and sown 

 early in ]\[ay. As it was not possible for me to observe the 

 material before August, the sowing was done later in the spring 

 than is usual. The germination and entire direction of the 

 planting out. etc., was in the hands of ]\Ir. W. G. Perrine, the 

 head gardener of the Botanical Garden of the University of 

 California, of whose unfailing interest and enthusiasm, ability 

 and absolute integrity, acknowledgement should here be made. 

 At the time of cleaning the seed it was found that there would 

 be sufficient hvbrid seed for sowing but none to carrv over to be 

 grown with the F., generation. Among the parents it was found 

 necessary, in order to obtain sufficient seed of variety III, to 

 use the remainder of the seed sown in 1910. The scarcity of 

 hybrid seed was due only to the fact that I had not thought 

 it necessary to repeat the various crosses more than once and 

 not to any lack of seed in the two capsules which in each case 

 resulted from the cross-fertilization. The cross II $X HI d^ and 

 III 5X He? yielded four capsules of seed from the nine at- 

 tempted cross-pollinations — two from each cross. The cross 

 II 5 X I cJ* unfortunately gave no seed in either of the two at- 

 tempts above mentioned. 



The germination of both parent and hybrid seed was high. 

 Twenty-five seedlings of each of the parents and of all the hybrids 

 except cross II $X HI d^ and its reciprocal, were pricked out into 

 flats. In this last instance the seed from each of the four cap- 

 sules was cleaned separately, germinated in the individual pots 

 and carried into the field with distinguishing labels. 



The small plants were set out late in June and occupied one 

 whole side of the inclosure. In this case there was sufficient room 

 available so that there could be four feet between groups of 

 plants, two feet between rows and twelve inches between plants 

 in the row. The months of June and July were unusually cloudy 

 and cold and the development of the plants in the field was 

 correspondingly slow. 



