AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 20T 



which formed the first stage of transition from iEgilops ovata, towards 

 wheat, was a hybrid, but Mr. Godson was first to give practical, and as 

 it appears, decisive proof in favor of that view. 



Prof. Planchon, of Montpelier, has repeated the hybridizing experiments 

 of Mr, Godson with success ; so also have Messi's. Groeuland and Vilmorin, 

 near Paris. Prof. Henslaw has also found a triticoid form of jEgilops 

 squarrosa, which proved barren, aifording rather a presumption that it was 

 a hybrid. Mr. Brown, of Colchester, has given an account of a similar 

 form, which was fertile, and was cultivated for four years, without how- 

 ever, becoming wheat. The French botanists now call this hybrid MgiU 

 ops spelt Off nrmis, as it appears in its wild state. 



DR. GODSON ON THE NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FERTILI- 

 ZATION OF ^GILOPS BY TRITICUM. {Wheat.) 



Hybridity excited the attention of naturalists more than a century ago, 

 but it has been long neglected, although very interesting and important, 

 at least in a scientific point of view. On one hand, crossing renders cer- 

 tain species of plants very " critical," and the determination of these 

 becomes almost impossible, if we do not carefully distinguish the forms 

 arising through hybridation from those which constitute genuine specific 

 types. By this means, Messrs. A. Braun, Koch, Wimmer, Fries, Nageli, 

 Lang, &c., have succeeded in elucidating certain genera of plants pre- 

 viously almost inextricable, and which were the despair of descriptive 

 botanists. Of this we have examples in the genera Cirsmm and Cardu- 

 um (thistle), Mtntha (mints), Vcrbascum (mulleins), Polygonum (docks), 

 and Salix (willows). 



On the other hand, hybrids, when fertile, tend to return, after a certain 

 number of generations, to one of the two types which have given them birth ; 

 and, as the crossings may take place in opposite directions, we sometimes 

 meet with complete series of intermediate forms between two perfectly dis- 

 tinct species. Thus, Mons. Grenier has gathered in a meadow, in the envi- 

 rons of Pontarlia, such a series of forms between Narcissus pseudo-?iar- 

 cissus and Narcissi/ s-pocticus; and Mons. De Solis has likewise observed 

 a complete set of individuals, presenting all the modifications which can 

 exist between IJlex-nanus and U-europceus (beans), comprehending in the 

 midst of them U-gallii. Other exactly similar instances might be cited. 

 The origin of cultivated wheat, which has 7iot, up to this time, been found 

 in a wild state in any part of the world, occupied the attention of natu- 

 ralists in ancient times ; it was attributed by the Greeks to iEgilops as its 

 parent plant. The spike of the ^gilops ovata breaks at its base when 

 mature, that it does not become separated into pieces, and that it preserves 

 its seeds tightly fixed to its floral envelopes. 



TOO MANY PLANTS IN ONE FRAME. 



I had not been long a gardener when Mr, Knight, director of the Exotic 

 nursery, reproached me for stuffing my frames and hot house with too many 



