306 



The Journal of Heredity 



OCCASIONALLY on some re- 

 mote farm or ranch a genuine 

 Mendelian experiment of great 

 interest and significance is per- 

 formed and lies entirely buried until 

 a fortunate accident brings it to 

 light. Our former Colleague, Pro- 

 fessor E. W. Bailey, kindly drew 

 our attention to such a case — an 

 orchard of unique chestnut species hy- 

 brids. He later placed at our disposal 

 some of the materials which he had 

 collected. We are presenting some of 

 the more obvious and striking facts 

 for the sake of their scientific, his- 

 toric and practical value. The case 

 is especially valuable, since it affords 

 an excellent example of genetic laws 

 in tree hybridization. In 1899 Mr. 

 George W. Endicott, of Villa Ridge, 

 Illinois, crossed the Japanese chestnut, 

 Castanca japonica (probably variety 

 Coe, but known locally as Japan 

 Giant) with pollen from the American 

 sweet (C mnericana). The mere 

 cross in itself was hardly remarkable, 

 inasmuch as several chestnut species 

 crosses had been made before. But 

 Mr. Endicott raised an orchard of 

 about 175 second generation hybrids 

 which are particularly interesting to 

 the geneticist, since all of these trees 

 are now twelve to fifteen vears old 

 and are bearing. 



Introduction of European and 

 Japanese Species 



Edible chestnuts are sometimes di- 

 vided into three large groups (or 

 species), the American, European, and 

 the Japanese. All three are now 

 grown in this country, but only the 

 first is indigenous. The history of 

 the earlie.st introduction of the Euro- 

 pean species is rather obscure, but 

 the general dissemination of this 

 chestnut certainly dates back to about 

 1800," when Eleuthere Irenee du Pont 

 de Nemours ])lanted a number of 

 French chestnuts in his warden near 



Wilmington, Deleware, where he had 

 settled after emigrating with his fam- 

 ily to America in 1799. The descend- 

 ants of these trees or their scions 

 have been extensively propagated in 

 this general region of the United 

 States. However, there must have 

 been isolated cases of importation be- 

 fore this time, because there is an 

 obscure record' that Thomas Jefferson 

 grafted the French marron to the 

 American sweet in 1773, at his home 

 in Monticello, Virginia. The impor- 

 tation of the Japanese species was 

 much more recent and was the direct 

 result of attempts to introduce this 

 type on a commercial basis. The S. 

 B. Parsons Co. of Flushing, N. Y., in 

 1876; William Parry, of Parry, N. J., 

 in 1882 ; and Luther Burbank, of 

 Santa Rosa, Cal., in 1886, were among 

 the earliest nurserymen and horticul- 

 turists to attempt this importation 

 and introduction. The last of these 

 importers planted over 10,000 Japanese 

 seedlings and selected three as desir- 

 able — the Coe, the Hale, and the Mc- 

 Farland. Mr. Burbank had several 

 hundred hybrid chestnuts just begin- 

 ning to bear about 1899 — from crosses 

 involving the chinquapin, the Jap- 

 anese, European, and Chinese chest- 

 nuts, and other types, according to 

 Powell's" report. Van Fleet' produced 

 hybrids involving European, Asiatic 

 and American types between 1894 and 

 1911. We have, however, little or no 

 information on the segregation in the 

 second hybrid generation in either of 

 these cases. Mr. Endicott made his 

 first successful cross about this time, 

 i. e., in 1899. 



Mr. Endicott's Crosses 



Mr. Endicott was much interested 

 in hybridization and recognized its 

 possibilties for the chestnut, since he 

 had perfected the Endicott plum and 

 other fruits. Practically throughout 

 his whole life he was interested in 



^Powell, G. H. nth Annual Report, Delaware Agricultural Experiment Station. 1900. 

 ''Bailey, L. H. Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, MacMillan Co., N. Y. Vol. II, 

 p. 742. 1914- 



*Van Fleet, W. Journal of Heredity, Vol. V, No. i, pp. 19-24. 1914. 



