MR henry's investigation OF ELM SEEDLINGS. 1 87 



drooping to one side, and large leaves, the first two pairs of 

 which were opposite and th6 others alternate. The seedlings 

 of U. glabra had stiff, unbranched, erect stems, with small 

 leaves, all of which were in opposite pairs. 



The greatest interest centres in the sowings of the Huntingdon 

 elm 1 seed, of which several were made. This tree (also known 

 as the Chichester elm), on account of its extremely vigorous 

 growth, in which it outstrips every other elm, is of great 

 importance in forestry. It is said by Loudon to have been 

 raised at Huntingdon about i6o years ago, from seed collected 

 in the neighbourhood. The seed sown by the author was 

 collected from a tree in the Brooklands Avenue at Cambridge. 

 This avenue is planted with Huntingdon elms, quite unmixed 

 with other kinds, so it is fair to conclude that the flowers were 

 "selfed," i.e., each flower (being protogynous and anemophilous) 

 was fertilised by pollen from another flower of the same tree. 

 The results obtained from the sowings were certainly very 

 striking. One batch of 971 seedlings showed 



732 with opposite leaves {glabra type) 

 239 „ alternate leaves {inontana type) 

 971 



giving approximately the Mendelian ratio 3 : i (theoretically the 

 numbers should be 732 : 244) as regards this single character. 

 The author states that further examination of the seedlings 

 showed that, taking all the points of difference in the two species 

 into account, there were possibly sixty-four different kinds, but 

 that, as it was desired to preserve the whole crop, and it was 

 impossible to count the seedlings for more than one character 

 without injuring them, this is not certain. The following four 

 kinds were, however, distinctly visible in the bed, approximately 

 in the following ratios : — 



Small opposite-leaved ' . .9 

 Large „ „ • • 3 



Small alternate-leaved . . 3 

 Large „ „ . . i 



Although he is not quite certain, the author considers the 

 Huntingdon elm to be a first cross between U. glabra and 



^ U. glabra var. vegeta of Loudon and Dippel (Loudon regarded U. glabra 

 as a variety of U. moniana) ; U. montana var. vegeta, Kew Hand List of 

 Trees and Shrubs. — A. D. R. 



