SPELTLIKE BUD-SPORTS IN COMMON WHEAT 119 



arise from such cases. When examining the plant more closely, 

 however, I found that there Avas no destruction from gall- 

 midges. I found instead that the plant was a sort of chimaera, while 

 the spike had two kinds of outer glumes, speltoid on one side of the 

 spikelets and glumes of the normal type on the other side. In fact, 

 the upright outer glumes on the one side (fig. 2 b), firmly pressed to 

 the flowering scales, were shorter than on the other side (fig. 2 a). 

 The average length here was only 7,4 mm., while on the other side it 

 was 7,8 mm. The outer glumes were also more abruptly cut off at 

 the top and had more distinct nerves. The flowering scales nearest 

 the speltoid outer glumes seemed also to be somewhat shorter than 

 those on the typical side of the spikelets and had shorter awns. In 

 order to be able to determine if the plant in question was conditioned 

 by two genotypically different components and to determine their 

 extension, most of the seeds from the spikes were sown in the 

 autumn 1917. Altogether 14 seeds were sown from flowers nearest 

 the speltoid outer glumes, and 12 from flowers from the typical side 

 of the spikelets. The former gave rise to 11 plants all of which were 

 of the normal type and apparently , identical with the 9 plants, 

 which arose from seeds nearest the typical outer glumes. No speltoids 

 or speltoid heterozygotes were obtained. All the other plants in 

 the plot where the chimaera was found, 64 in number, were of the 

 normal type, and in their offsprings no speltoids originated. 



Because of the fact that the chimaera-like wheatplant gave rise to 

 plants of the normal type only, it would perhaps seem reasonable to 

 assume that no real chimaera between speltoid and typical vulgare 

 was at hand but only a vulgare slightly modified through the influence 

 of an environmental factor working in the direction of speltoid charac- 

 ters. Of course, this explanation may be true; it seems very im- 

 probable, however. It is difficult to imgaine the cause of this modi- 

 fication, and it is also very remarkable that only one side of only 

 one spike is modified. The striking likeness between the outer glumes 

 in speltoid heterozygotes already found in Ironwheat and those 

 of the speltoid part of the chimaera-like spike speaks also against the 

 possibility of this explanation. 



Therefore, it seems much more probable that the plant in 

 question is a real chimaera, conditioned by two genotypically 

 different components, a speltoid heterozygote and its corresponding 

 normal type, of which the latter forms the greater part of the 

 spike, while the speltoid only forms the epidermis of one side of the 



