2 RXPERIMENTS IN THE HYBRIDISING OF INDIAN COTTONS. 
and also with the naturalised American ‘ Dharwar” (G. hirsu- 
tum). His success in crossing the latter species with Vavadi, with 
Kumpte and with Nagpur or Kil, varieties which belong to the 
great group of African-Asiatie species (Watt’s section IT of the 
genus Gossypium) proves that such hybrids are possible,* but 
they are difficult to obtain, and appear to be very unfertile, for 
he says of all that he obtained only one survived.+ In his 
account too of the crosses made between Indian varieties them- 
selves, he says nothing of the second and succeeding hybrid 
generations. Mr. F. Fletcher, in a Bulletin on Bombay cottons,+ 
gave details of some crosses that had been made, but these like 
those of Prof. Gammie were with reference to the lint alone, and 
were not on Mendelian lines. The same worker had a_ note, 
later on, in the ‘ Journal of Agricultural Science”$ on “Mendelian 
inheritance in cottons,” in which he stated that dominance was 
shown in several characters, among others by the fineness, length 
and colour of the lint, (which I have also observed in another 
cross) by the yellow colour of the petals (over white) and by 
fuzziness of the seed over nakedness. But his figures were for 
the first and second generations only. That this would hold for 
later generations and that therefore Mendel’s law was applicable 
was not shown. Mr. Lawrence Balls, who has been working on 
Egyptian cottons, has also published papers on the subject.|| 1 ** 
He believes that cross-fertilisation by insects occurs to a very 
considerable extent in the field, and in this he is in agreement 
* Natural hybrids are occasionally found where ‘‘ Indian” and American varieties are 
grown together, Sir George Watt considers jowari ‘ to have arisen from such a nat ural cross, 
Watt, tbid,, pp. 338, 339. 
7 Gammie,G. A. (3) “ The Indian Cottons,” 1905. 
t Fletcher, FF. (4) Bulletin No, 26 of the Bombay Agricultural Department, 
1907, 
§ Fletcher, F. (5) “ Mendelian Inheritance in Cottons,’ Journal of Agricultural Science, 
Vol. II, Dec. 1907, p. 281. 
|| Balls, W. Lawrence. (6) ‘* Note on Mendelian Heredity in Cottons,” ibid., p. 216, 
{| (Idem). (7) “Studies of Egyptian Cotton,” Year Book of the Khedival Agricultural 
Society, 1906, 
** (Idem). (8) ** Mendelian Studies of Egyptian Cotton,” Journal of Agrieultural Science, 
Vol, Il, p. 347 et seq. (July 1908). 
