67 
ent nature might be obtained by reciprocal crossing,* 1.e., by using 
the American chestnut as the female and the Japanese as the male. 
We had already received a good deal of information from 
various sources about American chestnuts in this vicinity which 
were bearing flowers. But in order to canvas the field more thor- 
oughly, we sent a letter to the editor of the New York Times 
asking for information about blossoming (or fruiting) American 
chestnuts within 100 miles of New York City. This letter was 
printed on the editorial page of the Times for February 22, 1935. 
As a result, we received forty-two letters giving us information of 
trees in many states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even Virginia, besides many in New 
York. Last spring we visited as many as we could of those locali- 
ties which were nearby. Most of them were impracticable for 
various reasons: we finally chose a wooded tract in the “ Half 
Hollow Hills ” district of the township of Huntington, on property 
occupied by Mr. J. Hager. Information of this locality was sent 
to us by Mr. Harold E. Willmott of Huntington, N. Y., and we 
are glad to take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Willmott and 
Mr. Hager for their cordial cooperation and interest. 
While I was occupied at Hamden, crossing the trees on the 
plantation there, I sent pollen by mail to my assistants, Miss Hester 
M. Rusk and Miss Hilda Vilkomerson, who crossed these native 
American trees at Half Hollow Hills. As a result of their work 
we harvested in October 60 nuts, as shown in (1) and (2). 
(3) This appears to be a good way of deriving a plentiful sup- 
ply of a new generation comparable to an F., generation. Since the 
chestnut is practically self-sterile,f it is impossible to get large 
numbers of true F.’s easily and quickly 
(4) This cross was made in 1934 for fe first time. ‘Two trees 
of this second generation are now growing at Hamden, Conn. 
(5) This would seem to be a very desirable combination, The 
Chinese species possesses undoubted disease-resistant characters, 
which as far as possible should be incorporated into our hybrids. 
~ 
(6) The reciprocal cross of (5° 

— 
* DeVries found that the reciprocal hybrids of Oecnothera biennis and 
muricata differed. See Bateson, Problems of Genetics. 1913. p. 107. 
7 It is not entirely self-sterile: in a few cases we have succeeded in 
selfing. 
