62 



The Journal of Heredity 



the wild wheat have been produced 

 synthetically. The spikelets of these 

 individuals are represented together 

 with the true wild in Fig. 5. The ker- 

 nel types of the parent varieties and 

 those of the true wild and synthetic 

 wild are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. The 

 kernels of the synthetic type may be 

 somewhat more plump than those of the 

 true wild, yet many of these are actually 

 identical in all respects. 



REVERSED AWNS 



Another very interesting fact ob- 

 served in this cross was that of the 

 reversed awn condition. The awns of 

 wheat, when present, are borne by the 

 flowering glumes. The empty glumes 

 may bear a short beak and in some 

 sorts this beak may develop a length of 

 at least 1 cm. 



Among the segregates of 112 were 

 found some types on which the awn 

 was produced on the empty glume and 

 the beak on the flowering glume (Figs. 

 8 and 9). All of the awns were not 

 thus reversed, but usually one on a 

 spikelet. Sometimes the awn and beak 

 were nearly of the same length, when 

 again the beak on the flowering glume 

 would be no longer than the beak 

 usually borne on the empty glumes. 

 While studying thousands of wheat 

 segregates, this character has never 

 been observed in any other cross. 



Seed from certain of these reversed 

 awn types have been sown, and it is 

 found that the abnormality is repro- 

 duced in the following generation. In 

 fact, one family at least gives every 

 indication that it is homozygous for the 

 reversed awn, as all of the plants in the 

 family of the fifth generation have this 

 condition. 



Crosses between types with the re- 

 versed awn and the ordinary types 

 have not been made as yet to determine 

 the behavior of this character in cross- 

 ing, but it is planned to make such 

 crosses. 



BEHAVIOR OF WILD WHEAT IN CROSSES 



While studying the wild segregates 

 it was considered necessary to deter- 

 mine how the characters of the true 



wild wheat were inherited when crossed 

 with other types. Two such crosses 

 have so far been observed. One durum 

 variety, Gharnovka, and one common 

 variety. Extra Early Windsor, were 

 each crossed with the wild wheat. It 

 is not planned to give these results here 

 in detail. A few facts, however, will 

 show the inheritance of certain char- 

 acters. 



In the Fj the brittle rachis is domi- 

 nant, or partially so, over the solid or 

 ordinary type of rachis. On the joints 

 of the rachis are many basal hairs or 

 bristles. The spikelets look much like 

 those of the wild type, except that they 

 are broader. 



When the F^ is inspected it is clear 

 that the fragile rachis segregates, at 

 least in these crosses, on what seems to 

 be a 3:1 ratio. Types are obtained 

 which resemble the wild type used as 

 a parent. These have the flattened 

 heads, long, stifif glumes, basal bristles 

 and long kernels like the wild type. The 

 red kernel color of the wild type seems 

 to be the resultant of two factors ac- 

 cording to the ratios obtained. 



It is clear from these crosses that 

 the wild type is obtained as a segregate 

 in the F^ and succeeding generations, 

 thus adding further evidence that, had 

 it been possible for the wild types ob- 

 tained from the Early Red Chief- 

 Marouani cross to have been the result 

 of a natural cross, further segregations 

 would have been obtained in the fol- 

 lowing generation. It is clear also that 

 the characters of the wild wheat be- 

 have in hybridization much as do the 

 characters of the other wheat types. 



GENERAL DISCUSSION 



The occurrence of this wild form is 

 a cross between the common and durum 

 types is of considerable interest, since it 

 may throw some light on the question 

 as to the prototype of our common 

 wheats. Since in the second generation 

 there were two wild-like plants found 

 out of a total of 113, it might be as- 

 sumed that they occur as a natural 

 result of ordinary segregation, and, 

 occurring in this proportion, might indi- 

 cate a 63 : 1 ratio. If this were true, 



