60 



The Journal of Heredity 



Each spikelet, however, carried away 

 the joint of the rachis attached to it 

 just as does the true wild wheat. 



At first thought it may be suggested 

 that these two forms arose because of 

 a natural cross with the F^ plant and 

 the wild wheat. Such is not a possi- 

 bility, however, since no wild wheat 

 had been grown in any of our cultures 

 until the year the F2 was grown, and 

 then these plants were in a distant part 

 of the greenhouse. 



Seed from both plants Nos. 112 and 

 113 were sown to grow an F3 and pro- 

 duced some very interesting forms. 

 Some of these forms obtained from 

 No. 112 are shown in Fig. 3. Plant 112 

 produced enough seed so that 70 plants 

 were grown in Fg. They segregated 

 for various characters such as color of 

 chaff, awns, and the like. 



In regard to color of chaff a segrega- 

 tion of 52 brown: 18 white chaff' was 

 obtained. Awnless, intermediate, and 

 awned plants were obtained as follows : 

 18 : 38 : 14. A great many of the spikes 

 were flat, much like the spike of the 

 wild type. There was a tendency on 

 the part of many plants to produce 

 compact-like heads. Most of these 

 were flattened, but not of the true wild 

 type of head. All of the plants pos- 

 sessed the long basal bristles similar in 

 length and amount to those borne by 

 the wild sort. All kernels were red, 

 arid very many of them similar in shape 

 and length to the wild type of kernel. 

 Finally, in regard to the fragile rachis, 

 most of the plants produced heads 

 with a fragile rachis. There was con- 

 siderable variation with respect to this 

 character. Some of the spikelets sepa- 

 rated at maturity, thus making it diffi- 

 cult to harvest them, while others 

 would not separate until they were 

 being handled. Some were in all re- 

 spects as fragile as the wild form. Only 

 5 or 6 plants had a somewhat solid 

 rachis. Certain of the spikelets ob- 

 tained in this Fg are shown in Fig. 4. 

 While there is some variation in regard 

 to size, shape, and the like, all are simi- 

 lar in that they carry with them the 

 joint of the rachis, which has a duck- 

 bill appearance. 



Only 10 plants were obtained in F,, 

 from plant 113. In general, their be- 

 havior was similar to that of the segre- 

 gates from plant 112. Some of the 

 plants from F3 were tested again in 

 F4. The results as obtained, so far as 

 the character of brittle rachis is con- 

 cerned, showed that practically all of 

 the plants produced heads with the 

 brittle rachis. There was some varia- 

 tion, yet most of them were brittle. 

 Only 3 plants produced heads that 

 broke apart with difficulty. All of the 

 plants produced red kernels and the 

 long basal bristles. Most of the plants 

 produced their spikes on straw which 

 was solid for some distance below the 

 first joint of the spike. A number of 

 the kernel shapes were very similar; 

 in fact some were identical with the 

 wild. The plants produced from pedi- 

 gree 2030al-112-7 were very similar 

 in all respects to wild, as will be seen 

 from inspection of Fig. 5, since one of 

 these segregates is shown with the true 

 wild type. It may seem that the awns 

 of the wild type are heavier than the 

 wild segregate. However, other forms 

 have been obtained with awns as heavy 

 as the wild. In addition to the char- 

 acters of the spike being similar to 

 those of the wild wheat, the habit and 

 appearance of the plants also were 

 similar to the wild type. The plants had 

 fine stems and leaves and the color was 

 of a lighter green than is common 

 among the domestic wheats. 



Seed from certain of these F^ plants 

 were sown and another generation was 

 grown. The results of this planting 

 were very similar to those of F4, thus 

 indicating that the plants all bred true 

 to the character of the fragile rachis. 

 Some of the families produced were 

 like the wild in all of their characters. 

 This is particularly true with respect 

 to two families. In family 112-4-4 the 

 rachis was very fragile and, although 

 there was segregation regarding awns 

 the awned types were very much like 

 the wild wheat. 



The offspring of 2030al-112-7 were 

 all classed as wild types in the fifth gen- 

 eration, so there is no question of doubt 

 but that types in every way similar to 



