236 



The Journal of Heredity 



able effects of similar operations upon 

 other species of plants, and I believe 

 it would not be easy to suggest an 

 experiment of cross-breeding upon this 

 plant, of which I have not seen the 

 result, through many successive gen- 

 erations." 



In the particular experiment in ques- 

 tion, Knight determined that, in cross- 

 ing a pea with grey seed-coats upon 

 one with white seed-coats, no immedi- 

 ate change took place, but that the 

 resulting hybrid seeds produced plants 

 the next year which uniformly bore 

 grey seeds, as well as having the purple- 

 colored stems and flowers of the male 

 parent. He further discovered the fact 

 that by crossing plants grown from these 

 (heterozygous) grey seeds, with pollen 

 from what he calls a "permanent" 

 white variety, plants of two types 

 appeared, one bearing grey and the 

 other white seeds — in other words, 

 the result of the cross of a recessive 

 white upon a hybrid dominant grey, 

 as we should say nowadays. No num- 

 bers are reported, so that a scientific 

 basis of ratios, as later found by Men- 

 del, was not laid. Despite the fact 

 that Focke says (p. 436) "he has con- 

 tributed more to our knowledge of 

 hybrids than any other writer during the 

 first half of the nineteenth century" 

 — a statement which may well be seri- 

 ously disputed — it is nevertheless true 

 that Knight was the first experimenter 

 to apply the science of plant hybridiza- 

 tion to plant improvement. Although 

 endowed with scientific insight of 

 no mean order, his chief claim to rec- 

 ognition lies in the fact that he pos- 

 sessed a practical instinct for getting 

 improved orchard fruits into existence. 



The following examples will serve to 

 illustrate the nature of his results. Of 

 his currant crosses, he says: "Five 

 varieties, three red and two white, 

 out of about two hundred, appeared 

 to me to possess considerably greater 

 merits than either of their parents, and 

 one of the red will, I believe, prove 

 larger than any red currant now in 

 cultivation." 



By crossing the "Noblesse" peach 

 (female) by "Nutmeg," (male), he 



obtained about twenty seedlings, of 

 which three "appeared better peaches 

 than I previously possessed." Of one 

 of these he says: "Its fruit has at- 

 tained a more uniform degree of per- 

 fection than I have ever witnessed in 

 any other variety. The trees have 

 also been free from every vestige of 

 mildew, in the situation where the 

 disease is very prominent, and have 

 entirely escaped the attacks of insects." 

 As to the result of his crosses of apple 

 varieties with the Siberian Crab, with 

 the object of producing fruits that would 

 ripen in cold and exposed situations, 

 he says: "The plants thus produced 

 seem perfectly well calculated in every 

 respect to answer the object of the ex- 

 periment, and possess an extraordinary 

 hardiness and luxuriance of growth." 



WILLIAM HERBERT 



The work of William Herbert was to 

 a considerable extent contemporary 

 with that of Knight. Born January 12, 

 1778, son of the Earl of Carnarvon, 

 educated at Eton and Oxford, he was 

 trained for the bar, which he finally 

 left for the Church, entering orders and 

 finally becoming Dean of Manchester. 

 Fond of outdoor life and sport, he pos- 

 sessed also, in addition to literary 

 talent, an instinct for plant studies. 

 Herbert worked largely on the improve- 

 ment of florists' flowers, but also con- 

 ducted experiments with some agri- 

 cultural plants. He was engaged for 

 a considerable time upon his own ex- 

 periments, before he came upon the 

 work of Koelreuter, which he immedi- 

 ately assimilated and estimated at its 

 true value, as the following comment 

 indicates : 



"The flrst experiments, with a view 

 to ascertain the possibility of producing 

 hybrid vegetables (plants) appears to 

 have been made in Germany, by Koel- 

 reuter, who published reports of his 

 proceedings in the Acts of the Peters- 

 burgh Academy between fifty and sixty 

 years ago. Lycium, Digitalis, Nico- 

 tiana. Datura, and Lobelia were the 

 chief plants with which he worked suc- 

 cessfully, and as I have found nothing 

 in his reports, to the best of my recol- 



