NOTE ON EXPERIMENTS WITH FLAX AT THE 

 JOHN INNES HORTICULTURAL INSTITUTION. 



By W. BATESON,. M.A., F.R.8. 



In connexion with Dr Eyre's paper the following note of our 

 experience with flax may be of interest. In 1911 Mrs Ryan of Fort 

 William suggested to me that an improved strain of flax might be 

 of value to the agriculture of Ireland and of the Scottish Highlands. 

 As I had long intended to make experiments on heterostyly in flax 

 I obtained some samples of seed. My interest in the subject was 

 especially concerned with the possibility of crossing the homostyled 

 L. usitatisshimni with some heterostyled species such as j^erevne. 

 Except in the style-structure and habit (usitatissivmiii being strictly 

 annual) there is no noticeable distinction between the two species. 

 Nevertheless all attempts to cross them, however made, have failed 

 vnth us. In this respect there is nothing moi'e to report. I may 

 mention that I used the method of emasculation described by Dr Eyre, 

 namely bodily removal of corolla with adherent anthers, very successfully 

 in the case of the short-styleil perenne. but did not find it applicable to 

 any other forms. 



Many samples of seed of usitatissimum were kindly sent by Messrs 

 Vilmorin. I also received others (through Dr Hinchcliff of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for Ireland) from Mr Ghekiere and from Mr de 

 Zeeuw. Among the Irish samples was one that was said to have been 

 saved for length of stem. 



The plants in each .samyjle were irregular in height, being obviously 

 a mixture of several tj^es. In most samples a few very tall plants 

 occurred, reaching to about 4 feet, whereas the majority were about 

 3 feet high. I covered the flowers of one such tall plant in the sample 

 sent by Vilmorin as " Courtrai," and fearing that there might be self- 

 sterility I also put into one bag the heads of two such plants which 



