Transformation of ^gilops into Wheat. 121 



sometimes in several, that the valves of the g^lume have two awns, 

 between which the intermediate tooth is altogether wanting; it 

 re-appears in the intermediate spikelets of the same spikes, and 

 in the upper ones it is developed into a third awn, sometimes of 

 great length. I also find, in some of my specimens of the same 

 yEqilops obtained by artificial fertilization, the same absence of 

 the intermediare tooth in the lower spikelet, and in one of these 

 specimens all the spikelets but one present this peculiarity, and, 

 moreover, one of the two awns is reduced almost to nothing. 

 Now this exceptional lower spikelet scarcely differs from those of 

 yEgilojJS speltcBf'ormis, in which the second awn sometimes re- 

 appears, as even M. Jordan acknowledges. What is there 

 surprising then in the fact of this peculiarity becoming per- 

 manent, or almost so, in ^f/ilops speltaforrnis, when we know 

 that, in this species of yEqilops, it is especially the lower 

 spikelets which are fertile ? What becomes then of this specific 

 character, resting on a tooth or an awn more or less, to distinguish 

 specifically (and not as forming a passage) ^qilops speltceformis 

 from y^qilops triticoides, especially since it has been demonstrated 

 that the latter plant is sometimes fertile. 



To sum up, it appears to me that the hybrid origin of j^gilopa 

 triticoides is incontestable ; that yEgilops speltcrformis is proved 

 by the observations made by M. Fabre, and the new facts 

 indicated in this essay, to be only a form, distinct doubtless, but 

 originating from yEgilops triticoides modified by cultivation. 

 The question, therefore, rests where I left it in my former 

 m.emoir, and that is easily explained. Does M. Jordan, on 

 taking up the question of yEgilops triticoides a second time and 

 after three years' silence, add any new element calculated to 

 modify it ? Has he followed the only truly scientific method, 

 that of observation and experiment, to destroy or weaken the 

 value of the facts produced in the discussion ? By no means. 

 His memoir on JEgilops triticoides and that on the Origin of 

 Fruit-trees, are reducible, in reference to the present question, 

 to metaphysical considerations, to pure and simple negation ot 

 facts observed by other botanists, and to doubts thrown upon 

 their experiments. 



One of the editors of the Annates des Sciences Naturelles, 

 apparently M. Decaisne, adds the following note : — " I quite 

 agree with JM, Godron in reference to the fragility of the spike 

 in the supposed j^gilops speltccformis, seeds of which I received 

 from M. Fabre himself, in 1852, under the name of ^gihps 

 triticoides. The spike is so caducous when ripe, that the slightest 

 touch makes it fall; it finally falls spontaneously, simply through 



