Leighty: Carman’s Wheat-Rye Hybrids 
A WHEAT-RYE HYBRID 
This grain is one of four produced ona 
wheat head from flowers cross-polli- 
nated by C. E. Leighty. Although 
it is a genuine hybrid, it shows no 
traces of the influence of the rye 
(male) parent. The hairs at the top 
have been slightly retouched to make 
them more visible. Photograph much 
enlarged. (Fig. 17.) 
inches long. The straws were all colors, from 
yellow to dark purple. They were of all 
thicknesses, from the size of rye to that of a 
small slate pencil. Some were densely downy, 
others smooth. Some were wiry and strong, 
others weak. 
These plants were maturing variously, some 
with rye, some with wheat, while many were 
still perfectly green, with a good promise of 
not ripening at all. These strange plants, all 
from one seed, vary so remarkably, are so 
entirely different from either wheat or rye, 
that nothing short of seeing them can give the 
reader a good idea of them or enable authorities 
on grasses to intelligently consider the matter.’’ 
Long and faithful effort was expended 
in the task of fixing selections from the 
wheat-rye hybrids. In 1892 this state- 
ment was made concerning the progress 
up to this time: 
“The illustration (Fig. 226) is a photo- 
engraving of typical heads of what we 
have alluded to as those hybrids 
425 
between rye and wheat which are 
distinctly neither wheat nor rye; in 
other words, they are new grains. For 
some years we despaired of ever fixing 
them. Seeds from bearded, long, narrow 
heads, as shown at No. 1, were just as 
likely as not to produce beardless, club 
heads as shown at No. 6, and all the 
intermediates as shown at Nos. 2, 3, 4, 
and 5, though the heads of the same 
plant varied only in size, the same as 
fixed varieties vary. Again, the downy 
stem wasinconstant. Seeds from plants 
with stems as downy as the chaff of 
velvet-chaff wheat would produce culms 
without down, though we have never 
known a smooth stem to produce one 
with down. It will be remembered that 
the stems of the rye for an inch or so 
below the head are always fuzzy or 
downy, and that this peculiarity in the 
rye-wheat hybrids must come from the 
male parent, rye. The quantity of 
down, however, is variable. Some of 
the stems of the hybrids are densely 
downy or plush-like, while others are 
just like the stiffer fuzziness of rye. 
Here again the stems of a plant are all 
alike. It never happens that one or 
several stems of a plant are fuzzy while 
the others are not. 
“The heads shown in the illustration 
are those of varieties which seem to be 
fairly well fixed. The beard or beard- 
lessness, the downy stems, and the 
general shape are quite constant. They 
vary chiefly in the size of heads, some 
plants from the same seeds yielding 
plants some of which bear heads twice 
as long as others. Selections are now 
being made to secure the largest heads. 
The grain itself is just as distinct as 
the heads. The kernels are long, of a 
dark amber color, while there is so 
little starch in them that they seem 
almost translucent like horn. It is 
reasonable to assume that such grain 
would make a highly nitrogenous flour. 
Of this, however, nothing is positively 
known. 
“The down extending 2 inches or 
more below the heads is not apparent 
in our illustrations.” 
In 1892 there were introduced three 
new varieties originated by Mr. Carman, 
