Trabut: Origin of Cultivated Oats 



85 



culta, a projTcny may be produced 

 having very useful mixed characters. 

 A. abyssinica will gain by being crossed 

 with the really superior A. strigosa. 

 But in the matter of hybridization there 

 is much more to be gained from experi- 

 mentation than from the mere discussion 

 of theoretical views. 



SUMMARY. 



Until recently, Avena fatua has been 

 regarded as the ancestor of the cultivated 

 oats comprised under the term Avena 

 sativa. 



Study of the wild forms of Avena 

 sterilis has led me to consider that the 

 cultivated oats of the Mediterranean 

 countries are descended from this wild 

 species. 



The Algerian oat, and the oats of 

 Italy, possess morphological characters 

 found in Avena sterilis. 



Avena barbata has given rise to some 

 cultivated forms, such as Avena strigosa. 



These three wild types of Avena 

 appear to have been modified by 

 cultural influences. In various cultures 



of the cereals, of flax, etc., may be found 

 mutational forms which nearly approach 

 cultivated types. One series of forms is 

 characterized by the reduction of the 

 hairs on the glumes, in another series the 

 awn is reduced, and a third series is 

 distinguished by the soHdity of the 

 rachis, which becomes gradually less 

 articulated. A variation of the nature 

 of a monstrosity may also be observed, 

 in which the glume is less compact, so 

 that the caryopsis falls out before 

 maturity. This mutation gives rise 

 to "naked oats." 



In conclusion, at least three wild 

 species of Avena, under the influence of 

 ctdture, may acquire characters fitting 

 them for cultivation. These three 

 species preserve the ancestral characters 

 by which they are adapted to different 

 climates. 



Avena fatua gives rise to oats adapted 

 to temperate and mountainous regions; 

 Avena sterilis, to oats adapted to the 

 southern countries, and to saline soils; 

 Avena barbata to races adapted to dry 

 countries. 



PLANS FOR INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 



The American section of the international committee on arrangements for the 

 second International Eugenics Congress met last month. Bleecker Van Wagenen 

 and Frederick Adams Woods were the members present, while H. H. Laughlin, 

 W. Bayard Cutting and C. B. Davenport met with them by invitation. An organ- 

 izing committee for the next congress was selected, as follows: David Fairchild, 

 Frederick Adams Woods, Raymond Pearl, E. L. Thorndyke, Vernon L. Kellogg, 

 and C. B. Davenport, chairman. This committee met in New York city on Jan- 

 uary 2 and elected Henry Fairfield Osborne of New York as president of the 

 congress, which will be held in that city in September, 1915. 



The Promise of Mendelism 



When it is remembered that in wheat, for example, resistance and nonre- 

 sistance to the attacks of disease, earliness and lateness of ripening, good and 

 bad milling quality, are all ]3airs of Mendelian allelomorphs, and that it is now 

 possible to take a different example of each of these qualities from each of three 

 different strains, and to combine them together in a single new variety with 

 perfect certainty and in four generations, it does not require much imagination 

 to foresee that every department of the animal and plant breeding industries 

 must sooner or later benefit enormously from Mendel's discovery. — R. H. Lock: 

 Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity and Evolution (1906). 



