HYBRIDS AND VARIATIONS IN WHEAT. 367 
‘Champlan,’ 1902 (a few), never appeared since. 
‘Shirriff’ x ‘Noé’ (dwarf), 1904-6 (a great number). 
‘White glabrous’ in ‘ Blé de Créte,’ 1906 (many). 
‘ Briquet jaune,’ 1906 (a few). 
‘Black Somalis’ wheat, 1903 (year when received) to 1906 (a 
great 
many) (fig. 103). 
I cannot help thinking that this phenomenon is one of the 
curious, and I should be glad to know what is the explanation 
Fic. 105. 
1, Red St. Laud wheat with bifurcated ear; 2, Shirriff x Noé wheat with 
numerous supernumerary spikelets. 
What most puzzles one when trying to reason it out, is the fact that, not- 
withstanding the care taken in the examination of wheats at Verriéres, the 
presence of supernumerary spikelets was never noticed (except in the case 
I mentioned in 1883) before 1900, and that since then they have appeared 
in a great many wheats of quite old standing, and amongst which ‘ Prince 
Albert,’ for example, had been cultivated for very many years. 
Another point to notice is that this curious variation has never appeared 
except amongst the soft wheats, and of those, only amongst the beardless 
most 
of it. 
