Garber and Ouisenberry : Origin of False Wild Oats 271 



FALSE WILD OATS IN VICTORY VARIETY 



Figure 11 Left to right are shown kernels of cultivated Victory oats, of intermediate 

 (heterozygous) false Victory and of false wild Victory. Cultivated and false wild oa s breed 

 true whnft"ie intermediate ^form segregates again, in the next generation, into "O'-I^^^j'f f^; 

 mediate and false wild oats, in the ratio 1:2:1. The false wild oats are very similar to the 

 ^ue wUd oats ( -irLa fat, a) but the seed of the latter is delayed in germmation by reason 

 of hav ifg a heavy seed coat which is supposed to prevent oxygen from reaching the germ,„at^ 

 iiL embryo This character is observed also in experimental crosses of wild oats w^h 

 ulti^a^efoats, but false wild oats does not show delayed germination. ^^ th-e^"-;/^^^^^^ 

 probable that false wild oats owes its origin to mutation rather than to natural crossing. 



wild, and sativa forms of the varieties 

 Victory and Garton 784. No_ differ- 

 ence in percentage of germination and 

 no evidence of delayed germination 

 were found. 



The results mentioned above are^ snn- 

 ilar to those obtained by Criddle' and 

 by Nilsson-Ehle'. The evidence pre- 

 sented by these two investigators and 

 the data reported here make it rea- 

 sonable to conclude that false wild oats 

 do not possess delayed germination 

 similar to that found in A. fatiia. 



Conclusion 



Seeds of wild oats possess delayed 

 germination. Evidence is presented in 

 this paper that in crosses between A. 

 sativa and A. faUia delayed germina- 

 tion is an inherited recessive character 

 and that it is somewhat loosely linked 

 with the fatua-type of seed articulation. 

 A germination test of seed produced 

 by 437 second generation plants was 

 made. 



One would naturally expect to find 

 delayed germination in some of the 



