February, 1920] GENETICS '.fl 



260. Hunter, Capt. H. The improvement of the barley crop. Jour. Dept. Agric. Ireland 

 19: 139-159. Fig. 1-11. 1919.— See Bot. Abate. 3, Entry 636. 



261. Ireland, Alleyne. Democracy and the accepted facts of heredity. Jour. Heredity 

 9: 339-342. Dec., 1918. — A plea for hereditary autocracy in government, based upon prin- 

 ciple of inheritance of leadership and genius. Close analogy is maintained between struggles 

 for leadership and success of the race in species of plants and animals on the one hand and 

 man on the other. — •//. H. Laughlin. 



262. Key, Wilhelmine E. Better American families. Jour. Heredity 10: 11-13. Jan., 

 1919. — A short essay on the nature of social progress and its relation to good blood. The most 

 virile stock of Devon and Somerset is traced through Massachusetts Bay and thence to the 

 old Northwest, evidence of social heritage being measured by the response of men of higher 

 order to the wars of their times. Similarly the persistence of degeneracy is named in the 

 Jukes, Ishmaelites and Kallikaks. — //. H. Laughlin. 



263. Kiessling, L. Einige besondere Falle von chlorophylldefekten Gersten. [Several 

 special cases of barley defective in chlorophyll.] Zeitschr. indukt. Abstamm. Vererb. 19: 160- 

 176. June, 1918. — Briefly reviews earlier studies on genetics of plant characters involving 

 such chlorophyll defects as albino and yellow foliage. In numerous cases cited from litera- 

 ture, heterozygote of green foliage X either albino or yellow foliage is green-leaved, demon- 

 strating absolute dominance of former. Finds in genetic studies on Hordeum dislichum L. 

 nutans Schiibl. three types of foliage variations involving chlorophyll defects, similar to those 

 cited from literature, which from their behavior in experimental cultures, are similar to 

 DeVries's "Zwischenrassen" (half races, ever-sporting varieties). The first discussed type arose 

 in a hybrid green-leaved strain in which the ancestral plants had had their unopened flower 

 buds injected with a solution of potassium nitrate. Other plants similarly treated gave no 

 such variations. The variation consisted of plants with entirely white (albino) or white- 

 striped foliage. A detailed discussion of its inheritance is given. Two entirely green-leaved 

 plants gave rise the following season to three classes of offspring — green-leaved, striped- 

 leaved, and white- or albino-leaved — in proportions approximating a Mendel ian ratio of 

 12 : 3 : 1 (provided all seed planted grew and those unrepresented when the first observa- 

 tions were made are regarded as albinos). Most of the pure albinos died very soon after ger- 

 mination. One striped-leaved plant of the same origin as the two green-leaved plants 

 mentioned above produced the following season only striped-leaved and albino progeny in pro- 

 portions approximating a Mendelian ratio of 3 : 1. These ratios suggested a Mendelian two- 

 factor interpretation of the data — one factor for green foliage, and one for striped leaves, the 

 former being dominant. In the absence of the first, the progeny are striped. In the absence 

 of both, albinos result. However, a series of observations made at intervals over a 3S-day 

 period on these plants necessitated changes in classification, since all the albinos actually 

 observed either died or later became striped with green. Those classified as green remained 

 unchanged. The expression of striped in the same plant also varied much from time to time. 

 Several hundred seed from the green and white-green striped classes were sown, resulting in 

 still more complex results. Seed from striped plants gave both striped and albino plants, 

 while that from green plants gave green: striped or green: striped and albino in various pro- 

 portions. No green bred true. Literature on striped and albino foliage variations is dis- 

 cussed in detail. — The second type of variation consisted of shoots with albino and striped 

 leaves arising as a bud sport from a normal green-leaved plant which insects had injured. 

 Efforts to obtain such results again from this and other cultures by various types of mechan- 

 ical injury were unsuccessful. — The third type of chloroplrvll dofect studied consisted of a 

 light yellow (not golden yel!ow)-leaved mutation which for the most part bred true in large 

 cultures. It had fewer chloroplasts per cell and larger leaves than the normal green-leaved 

 form. The few variant plants in these mutant cultures had various kinds of chlorophyll 

 defects such as striped light and dark yellow leaves, white and yellow striped leaves, etc. — 

 Orland E. White. 



