84 



The Journal of Herkdity 



rati, director of the Office A<,Taire 

 Experimental, two lots of Abyssinian 

 oats; one, Dr. Baldrati writes me, is 

 made up of an abundant spontaneous 

 form, the other of the form cultix'ated 

 not for grain, but for forage. The wild 

 oat was hairy with very fragile articu- 

 lations. The other was gla])rous or 

 pretty near it, and with articulations 

 retaining the grain better. 



In cultivation at the Botanical vSta- 

 tion, I have found all the transition 

 stages between A. wiestii and A. abys- 

 sinica, which is the cultivable form of 

 it. 



A. ahyssinica has therefore been 

 wrongly connected with A. sativa. It 

 is a form still half -wild. It appears, also, 

 to be produced by the transformation of 

 a native Avena, developed and modified 

 in cultivation. 



Although the differences between 

 A. barbata and A. wiestii may be of 

 little importance, it seems that these 

 two plants are unequally xero]jhilous in 

 dry places, A. barbata being simply the 

 oat of the arid places of the Tell (the 

 coastal region of Algeria), while ^4. 

 wiestii is purely a desert plant. 



The domestication of A. wiestii is 

 as yet no more than outlined ; it will be 

 necessary to perform a vigorous segre- 

 gation of the forms in the mixture and 

 by a])propriate treatment, either quickly 

 or gradually by using patience, to 

 obtain cultivable races superior to the 

 A. abyssinica in use by the Abyssinians. 



ORIGIN OF AWNLESS OATS. 



In this study of the materials within 

 my reach I do not pretend to have 

 elucidated completely the question of 

 the origin of all our oats. The awnless 

 oats are also connectable with ])rimitive 

 species. If all transitions between the 

 wild and the improved forms (inter- 

 mediate forms which one may regard as 

 the stages of a gradual imj^rovement by 

 culture), are found in the series of 

 cultivated oats, it a])i;ears admissible 

 for the awnless oats, that sudden 

 mutations might have intervened. These 

 oats are characterized by teratological 

 anomalies; they are monstrosities such 

 as ]3roduced Triticum polonicum. 



The large Chinese awnless oat has 



the closest analogy with .4. sterilis. 

 I have been able to hybridize it with 

 A. sterilis culta. 



The study of the domestication of 

 Avena j^rcsents, from the genetic point 

 of view, some rather substantial argu- 

 ments in favor of an ambient medium, 

 a modifying agent causing fluctuations 

 which end in the formation of varieties 

 well characterized and fixed by selection. 



Avena jatua in cultivation loses the 

 fragility of its articulations, its hairs, 

 its awns. It becomes a domesticated 

 plant, but all the stages of its changes are 

 easily retraced. Cultivated in very 

 diverse surroundings, A. sativa has to- 

 day a very numerous and extremely 

 varied lot of domesticated descendants, 

 as should be the case if the environment 

 causes fluctuations. 



A. sterilis culta has not been sub- 

 mitted to the same tests. This variety, 

 cultivated on the Mediterranean borders, 

 has until recently ne\^er been carried to 

 other climates. The influence of the 

 cultural environment ay)pears to be 

 very rapid, since Buckmann according 

 to Darwin (Variations of Animals and 

 Plants under Domestication, p. 330, 

 New York, 1897) in a few years of care- 

 ful culture and selection, converted 

 A. fatua into two cultivable races, 

 almost identical with the races already 

 cultivated. 



In oats, the modifications of the wild 

 types are in reality not deep. The 

 suppression of the fragile articulations 

 has been considered as having much too 

 great im])ortancc in Avena, as in Triti- 

 cum and Sorghum. The fragile rachis 

 may become tenacious by the simple 

 play of fluctuating characters. It is 

 nevertheless worth while to remark that 

 in the natural habitat, the fragility of 

 the rachis is never lacking in the wild 

 types. This transformation seems to 

 take place only under the influence of 

 cultivation. 



Hybridization ])etween the cultivated 

 s])ccies of oats has not yet been methodi- 

 cally attemjjted to my knowledge, and 

 there is here a very interesting open 

 field. It is true that we have yet to 

 determine in what degree a true hybridi- 

 zation will be possible. If Avena fatua 

 sativa may be crossed with .4. sterilis 



