HOWARD AND HOWARD. 61 
In the harvest of 1907 at Lyallpur a slightly bearded smooth 
red chaff lax plant, not at all like a compactum, was observed 
in one of the dwarf wheat plots. This was sown separately in 
1907, and in 1908 gave rise to 12 bearded and 11 beardless plants. 
They could also be divided up into lax and dense and into red and 
white chaff. In the present year (1908) in 42 of the 108 plots grown 
from the produce of single ears sown in 1906, we observed stray plants, 
often more than one in a plot. In many cases these were red or 
white chaff, felted, bearded, red grained plants, and most of them 
appear to be first generation of a cross between type 9 (Lal Kale 
Kasarwala) and the type in which they were found. These must 
have arisen either from natural crossing in 1907 or from stray seeds 
(either left in the soil from a previous crop or brought accidentally 
by ants, birds or in the irrigation water). As they are different in 
appearance from any known wheat at Lyallpur, and as natural 
crossing has already been proved by us to occur in the Punjab, we 
consider it exceedingly probable that these stray plants are natural 
crosses in the F, generation. Upwards of 100 of these supposed 
natural crosses will be sown this year and the results will be 
published in a subsequent paper. We are inclined to believe 
that in the Punjab in good years natural crossing is exceedingly 
frequent, especially when one of the kinds sown is type 9. In 1907 
it was observed that the glumes of this sort open to a very wide 
extent when the anthers are ripe and liberate a vast amount of pollen 
into the air. As our plots were surrounded by a belt of this wheat 
on all sides, there were abundant opportunities for its pollen distri- 
bution. The season at flowering time was very dry and sunshine 
was abundant. Our artificial crosses made at this period at Lyall- 
pur gave nearly 100 per cent. of fertilised grains. There is no 
doubt, therefore, that the season was a favourable one for natural 
crossing to take place. In conclusion, our opinion so far is that in 
the Punjab natural crossing is possible to such an extent that great 
care will have to be taken to keep the sorts pure and that plots 
grown next to each other must be very carefully rogued every year. 
At Pusa where, as a rule, the air is much damper at flowering 
time, natural crossing in the field seems to be very rare. 
