CHARACTERS OF HINDI HYBRIDS. 31 



Upland type. Several of these were distinctly clustered and some 

 were quite limbless, like (lu> Upland parent, though the majority did 

 not have the shortened internodes. 



Coherence of characters was shown very conspicuously in the fact 

 that all of the definitely clustered or limbk^ss plants had the Upland 

 tvpe of foliage, all were quite hairy, and all had white petals, as in 

 Ul)land cotton. The only definite mark of hybridization on several 

 of these plants was the purple spot at the base of the petals. When 

 the purple spot was lacking there was no definite evidence of hybridi- 

 zation, but some plants that would have been taken for pure Upland 

 in all other respects had very faint spots, showing that they were 

 hybrids. 



There was no complete dominance of the yellow flower color as 

 reported in some Egyptian-Upland hybrids. None of the yellow 

 flowers were as yellow as th()se of P^gyptian cotton. All of the yellow 

 flowers had pale-purple spots at the base of the petals. Some of the 

 white flowers had spots as dark as any of the yellow flowers. In 

 this respect the hybrids may be said to afford an example of the 

 Mendelian law of free combination, but these variations occurred in 

 the first generation, where Mendelian crosses are expected to give 

 more uniform results. . 



Another lot of hybrids i)roduced by Mr. Fletcher by fertilizing an 

 lT])land cotton from Cochin China with pollen of the Voltos variety 

 of Egyptian cotton showed quite a contrast in comparison with the 

 preceding series. Nearly all of these plants looked like ordinary 

 first-generation Upland-Egyptian hybrids, except one that showed 

 only Upland features. But the white petals had small purple spots 

 as an e\'idonco that the plant represented a true hybrid, not merely 

 a result of accident in manipulation. The plant w^as very hairy and 

 the leaves and bolls showed no departure from Upland characters. 

 All other plants of the cross had pale-yellow flowers, and all the 

 flowers had the spots pale, sometimes entirely wanting. The spot 

 character would have to be reckoned as nearly recessive, but not 

 quite completely so. Two plants were found in the same lot that 

 might have been taken for ordinary Egyptian individuals, unless it 

 were for too much hair, but one plant was more hirsute than the 

 other, especially on the under side of the leaves, where the stellate 

 hairs developed into noticeable tufts. This also nuist be taken as a 

 sign of hybridity. The other plant was somewhat abnormal, in that 

 it produced several sterile in^■olucres composed of only a single bract. 

 In a third lot of hybrids between the Voltos variety of Egyptian 

 cotton as the female parent and the Cochin China Upland as the 

 male there Avere several more plants of a complete Upland type. 

 Three of these plants had been grown from fuzzy seeds that appeared 

 in the Voltos cotton, an indication that the variety was not pure. 

 77267°— Bui. 210—11 3 



