63 



the richest canes have been taken indi/idually. Where the richest clump 

 in a field was tested there was some indication of value, and this is believed 

 to warrant further investigation. A description was given of attempts to 

 produce new varieties from seed. The fact that the sugar cane sometimes 

 produced fertile seed was established about 1887. At that time fungus 

 diseases had almost entirely destroyed many of the best varieties in Java 

 and in the "West Indies. A careful examination of the flowers, which ar© 

 very small and very numerous, showed that occasionally a few seed in a 

 panicle were produced, frequently only 2 or 3 being found in a panicle 

 containing many thousand flowers. In the author's experiments the 

 whole panicle was sown in boxes in the hope of the presence of some 

 fertile seed. On account of the minuteness of the flowers and the rarity 

 of the production of tertile seed, the ordinary method of cross fertilization 

 could not be adopted. Staminate plants were planted to the windward of 

 the pistillate ones, or in alternate rows. In another series the panicles 

 were covered with bags and later dusted with pollen-bearing plants of 

 known value. It was found that frequently the pollen was infertile, while 

 the pistillate flowers were fertile. The most valuable varieties so far ob- 

 tained through seed canes have followed the principal characteristics of 

 the staminate parent. 



So far as the writer's observation has gone, the seed canes tiller more 

 extensively than the plants from the cane top. The Eibbon and White 

 Transparent varieties have proved the best for mother plants, the mother 

 plants governing the size, color, and to a considerable extent the sugar con- 

 tent of the cane. Purity of the juice has not been definitely determined 

 as due to either parent. As to the yield of sugar, the average for the island 

 of Barbados is said to be 1.7 tons per ao.re, while one variety shown by the 

 writer, designated as INo. 208, yields 3 tons of sugar per acre at Barbados, 

 and its value has been further attested on the islands of Trinidad, St. 

 Kitts, etc. 



A paper on the Cytological Aspects of Hybrids, by W. A. Cannon, of 

 Columbia University, New York, showed that the relation between the 

 cytological and experimental studies could not be defiintely stated in the 

 present state of our knowledge on the subjects. A review was given of 

 Mendel's laws in the light of modern cytological studies. So far these 

 studies have been made on first-generation hybrids. It is said that the 

 normal division of sex nuclei leads to fertility in hybrids, but obnormal 

 division to sterility. Cytological studies on cotton and other hybrids, it is 

 claimed, show (1) a possible cause of sterility, (2) that variation in the 

 hybrid may or may not be associated with variation in spermatogenesis, 

 and (3) that chromosomes tend to retain their respective individualities^ 

 as shown in many hybrids examined. 



Improvement of Koses by Bud Selection was the subject of a paper by 

 L, C. Corbett, of this iJepartment, in which experiments were reported 

 which were undertaken to determine the relative value of blind and flower- 

 ing wood in rose production. It was shown that individual characteristics 

 of a branch were perpetuated from generation to generation in plants 

 asexually propagated, aud also that cumulative results are not to be ex- 

 pected by the selection of parts showing like tendencies through successive 

 generations. The flowering habit of plants produced from flowering wood 

 through five generations was in no way increased, nor was it diminished 

 when blind wood was employed in a like manner. From the commercial 

 side this has an important bearing, us it is more economical for the florist 

 to produce hie roses each season from blind wood. 



Under the title of Improvement of Oats by Breeding, J. B. Norton, of 

 this Department, gave a description of the work recently undertaken in 



