Transformation of ^-Egilops into Wheat. 115 



p;ated in the same field up to the present time," — that is to sav. 

 lor four years. Now these two specimens each have the valves 

 of the glume furnished Avith two short awns and an intermediate 

 tooth ; this is the form suhmutica of ^gilops triticoides, of v/hich 

 we have spoken above. 



In the autumn of 1852, I myself sowed in my garden, sepa- 

 rated from cultivated corn by the whole length of a suburb of 

 Montpellier, seeds of the same form of _/3^giI.ops triticoides, 

 gathered by me in the environs of that town. They germinated 

 perfectly ; the plants flowered, but yielded no seed. Yet this 

 plant had evidently been reproduced at least in one generation. 



It is shown, besides, in M. Fabre's experiments, that during 

 the earlier years of the sowings he obtained but a small number 

 of seeds, and that a certain number of plants, although belonging 

 to the second and the third generation, yielded none. This refers 

 to j^gilops triticoides, not yet to y¥lgilops speltfpformis, for M. Fabre 

 carefully noted that the majority of the plants of the first two 

 years of cultivation presented two awns on each valve of the 

 glume; among them some were fertile, and the sowings were 

 thus capable of being continued for a long series of years. 



If it is accurate to say that the wild plants of j^giiops triti- 

 coides rarely produce seeds, which is easily to be ascertained in 

 herbaria, the preceding facts, nevertheless, prove that this plant 

 does sometimes possess them, and that it is able to propagate 

 for a considerable number of generations. There is nothing in 

 this contrary to the doctrines usually held respecting hybridity ; 

 on the contrary, these facts confirm them, and this was even one 

 of the circumstances which made me suspect the hybrid nature of 

 ^'^pilops triticoides. 



But admitting, even hypothetically, that absolute sterility, 

 would it thence follow that j:Egilops ovata became transformed 

 into j^gilops triticoides ? This is pure supposition, in favour of 

 which there does not exist any known iact or even any analogy. 

 Does the sugar-cane, which, after reproduction by buds for a 

 long series of years, has lost the faculty of producing seeds, 

 present flowers and a panicle different from those of the wild 

 .sugar-cane? The Phragmites and many other grasses which 

 propagate vigorously by stolons, are very often sterile, but do 

 not, on that account, exhibit appreciable transformations in their 

 floral organs. Why should it be otherwise in j^qilops ovata ? 



But this is not all : how shall we explain, if we adopt M. 

 Jordan's supposition, that u^gilops ovata, when its flowers have 

 been smeared with a foreign pollen, or its own stamens have been 

 removed and replaced by those of wheat, produces, in the following 

 generation, not only plants of ^gilops triticoides, but two mo- 

 difications of that plant, according as the foreign pollen applied 



i2 



