208 _REPORT—1857. 
for if we can by experiment advance the wild oat to the cultivated state, so 
the cultivated by degenerating may relapse into the wild state. That the 
latter position is true, I had long known from an examination of the produce 
of shed oats around ricks and in fields, as some of these in a single year will 
be seen to possess a few hairs at the base of the fruit*, the awn will get longer 
and more rigid with a darker colour, and the seed much smaller. It would, 
however, take too long to pursue an inquiry into the agricultural speculations 
which these experiments might illustrate, and this perhaps may be better 
done when our crops are still further advanced; and I need therefore only to 
advert to such subjects as those involved in the growth of new sorts, the 
reasons for their value, and the facts counected with their maintenance, to 
prove this position. 
d. Aigilops.—My three plots of this grass may be described as follows :— 
Ist. A permanent plot that is allowed to seed itself and grow sporadically, 
which it does with great freedom. 
2nd. A plot of carefully picked seeds sown in autumn. 
3rd. The same seeds sown in spring. 
In reporting upon 4gilops last year, I remarked upon the difficulty of 
ripening the seeds. However, this is obviated, as the present condition of 
Plot 1 shows it to have become perfectly acclimatized. I had last year some 
reason to think I had made an advance towards proving the truth of M. 
Fabre’s statement as to this being the parent of the cultivated wheat; but 
this year my examples have, if anything, retrograded. I shall therefore repeat 
the experiments in my own private garden, which is a distance from the 
College, and on a perfectly different soil. If M. Fabre’s views be correct, I 
should have little hope of success where the plant grows so well and the cir- 
cumstances seem so suitable for its maintenance in a wild condition, cul- 
tivation indeed consisting in the growing of plants in soils and situations 
unsuitable for them in their wild nature. 
3. Papitionaceous Pianrs.—As regards this family, my experiments 
tend to show that many species may be made available for agricultural feed- 
ing purposes more than are at present employed; these however need not now 
be commented upon. I shall therefore confine myself to an account of ex- 
periments and observations on the following :— 
Vicia angustifolia. _~Narrow-leaved vetch. 
Trifolium pratense. _Broad-leaved clover. 
>, medium. Ziczac clover. 
Melilotus officinalis. | Common melilot. 
; Taurica. Cabool clover. 
In 1852 I collected seeds of Victa angustifolia from the neighbourhood of 
Cirencester, which I sowed in a plot. In the spring of 1853, it came up well; 
but on flowering, only a few plants could be said to present the characters of 
the species as laid down in books, or indeed as afforded by the parents of 
these very specimens. The chief differences were much larger foliage, a 
greater length of stem, a tendency to two flowers in the axils of the leaf 
instead of a : solitary one, and a great increase of size in the seeds. Now these 
distinctions did not exist in more than 20 per cent. of the plants; and as — 
regards the difference in the seed, it may be remarked that it is rare to geta 
sample of seed of the cultivated vetch but will be very variable. : 
In 1854, I planted the seeds that were largest and most changed from — 
* T this year gathered a specimen from an old oat field on the Royal Agricultural College ¥ 
Farm with four white hairs at the base, and the seeds had a tendency to separate with the “a 
oblique scar, the grain still being plump. 4 
