ExiM:raMp:xT6 in the Htbkiuization ok Cereals. 435 



were awnless, short awned, half awned, and full awned sorts. 

 JKinds with white chaff, and kinds with red chaff; kinds with 

 thick chaff, and kinds with very thin, almost chartaceous 

 chaff. An inspection of the orrain revealed the fullest diver- 

 sity of size, shape, color and substance. Among so many 

 variations, the several ends I had had in view in crossing 

 were fully realized. The long, loose heads of the Berlin 

 variety had become well set with beautiful grain. I had 

 varieties vieldintj white kernels of the laro-est size. I had 

 the hardy, vigorous plants of the Gold Drop, with bright, 

 erect straw, yielding bountifully grain as refined and white 

 as any winter wheat I ever saw. Some fifty varieties from 

 this profusion of forms were under cultivation the past sea- 

 son. To fix the character of these by selection, to test them 

 &nd reject all but a very few of the highest promise, to 

 increase the stock of such from a gill each to a quantity suf- 

 ficient for dissemination, all this remains to be done before 

 1 can hope to reap my wheat harvest sown four years ago. 



An account of another experiment, begun in 1871, will 

 introduce into this discussion of my subject another well 

 ascertained fact in hybridization, that of the sterility, more 

 or less marked, of hybrid productions. Receiving that curi- 

 ous cereal commonly known in Europe as Poland Wheat, 

 which, by reason of its peculiar kernels (they are a third of 

 an inch long, and of a fiinty substance), and its monstrous 

 glumes and outer palets (an inch in length), botanists regard 

 as a species distinct from the one usually cultivated in so 

 numerous varieties, Triticum vulgare, and have named T. 

 polonicum, a cereal which, on various occasions and under 

 various names, as Wild Goose Wheat, Mountain Rye, etc., 



