Material for Plant Breeders 47 



for kale and spinach ; the Indian coral collection of melons from all parts of the 



tree (Erythrina arhorescens), whose 12- world, any one of which may prove to 



inch spikes of brilliant scarlet blossoms be a prize in some locality adapted to it. 



remind one of the peerless Royal Any person interested in plant breed- 



Poinciana, but which has the advantage ing, and willing and able to rpake use of 



of greater hardiness; the romantic novelties, should communicate with the 



Hawaiian Cotton Tree {Kokia rockii) Ofhce of Foreign Seed and Plant Intro- 



which apparently was saved almost by duction, stating the amount of land at 



chance from absolute extinction a few his disposal, whether owned or leased, 



years ago; the handsome P^r5ea 6or6o«z'a whether plants are desired for green- 



of the southern United. States, which house or indoor culture, and his experi- 



may be of value to breeders of the ence in caring for and experimenting 



avocado; an elm {Ulmus densa) from with plants. He will then be placed 



Turkestan, which should successfully on the mailing list of the ofhce, and be 



withstand the alkaline soil and arid furnished with any of its material that 



climate of the Southwest; and the large hp is able to utilize profitably. 



Wheat X Rye Hybrids 



Hybrids between wheat and rye are described by Fr. Jesenko in the Ztschft. f. 

 ind. Abstammungs und Vererbungs-Lehre (X, 311-326). They are possible only 

 when wheat is used as the seed-bearer or mother plant. From 6,100 pollinations 

 the experimenter secured 35 heads of grain, which proved to be self-sterile. There 

 appears to be blending in some characters and prevalence or dominance in others. 

 These hybrids when crossed back on rye produced with one exception, nothing, 

 when crossed back on wheat set grain in about 3% of the cases. The product of 

 this cross was diverse; in general it much resembled wheat and the plants which 

 seemed closest to wheat in appearance were in general the most fruitful. The one 

 grain secured in the back cross on rye produced a plant strongly resembling rye 



A Department of Eugenics 



The Red Back Texas Medical Journal, published at Austin, now includes a 

 "Department of Eugenics," edited by Dr. Malone Duggan and Dr. Theodore Y. 

 Hull, both of San Antonio. It is devoted principally to sex hygiene and other 

 sanitary measures. 



Race Regeneration and Law 



If even the problem of the extirpation of the feeble-minded classes can be ap- 

 proached and largely settled on a voluntary basis, without any risky experiments 

 in legislation, much more is this the case with the higher breeding of the race, as 

 it may be exercised by the fully sane and responsible classes. Here is emphatically 

 the field of the moralist, who need not feel called on to forfeit his claim to being 

 called a moralist by clamoring for the brute force of law. Even if scientific opinion 

 and general public opinion were ready for marriage legislation in the interests of 

 the regeneration of the race it would still be a problem how far such legislation is 

 likely to be in accordance with sound morals. For legislation can only demand 

 actions that are both generalised and externalised, and the demands of the re- 

 generation of the race must be both particularised and internalised, or they are 

 meaningless and even void. The law may, for instance, enact prohibitions against 

 certain kinds of people marrying, but it cannot so prevent procreation, and the 

 mere prohibition to marry is both unjust and unnecessary in so far as it prevents 

 the unions of people who may be fully aware of their racial disabilities and con- 

 sequent responsibilities and ready to act accordingly. Thus it is that morals is 

 called upon to retain jealously within its own sphere these aspects of racial re- 

 generation, and to resent the encroachments of law. — Havelock Ellis: The Prob- 

 lem of Race-Regeneration (1911). 



