INTRODUCTION 7 



studied the question of the immediate effect of pollen. A variety 

 of pea with a white seed-coat was fertilized with pollen of a 

 gray-seeded variety. No immediate influence of pollen was 

 obtained. However, when the resultant plant was pollinated 

 by a white variety both gray- and white-seeded sorts were ob- 

 tained in the next generation. William Herbert was a contempo- 

 rary of Knight who learned of the work of Koelreuter some time 

 after he had started his experiments. He opposed the idea that 

 species crosses were necessarily sterile. 



Studies made by John Goss are considered of much interest as 

 they showed results similar to those obtained later by Mendel. 

 In 1820 flowers of Blue Prussian pea, which has bluish seeds, 

 were pollinated with pollen of Dwarf Spanish. Three seeds were 

 obtained which were yellowish- white like the male parent. 

 Plants grown from the seeds produced some pods with all blue, 

 some with all white, and some with both blue and white seeds in 

 the same pods. When planted, the blue seeds bred true while 

 the white seeds gave some segregates. No law, however, was 

 developed. 



Other Workers of this Period. At about this same period 

 Sargeret, in France, was making studies with C ucurbitacece 

 crosses. He observed the fact of dominance as the following 

 crosses show. 



MUSKMELON (FEMALE) CANTALOUPE (MALE) FIRST GENERATION 



1. Flesh, white Flesh, yellow Flesh, yellow 



2. Seeds, white Seeds, yellow Seeds, white 



3. Skin, smooth Skin, netted Skin, netted 



4. Ribs, slightly evident Ribs, strongly Ribs, rather 



pronounced pronounced 



5. Flavor, sugary and Flavor, sweet Flavor, acid 



very acid at same 

 time 



He notes (Roberts, 1919) that: 



"The characters were not blended or intermediate at all, but were 

 clearly and distinctly those of the one or the other parent." 



Naudin made quite careful studies and attempted to summar- 

 ize, his results. He so nearly approached the law later laid 

 down by Mendel that some- workers have spoken of it as the 

 Naudin-Mendel law. He thought that if hybrids were self- 

 fertilized they would return more or less rapidly to the parental 

 types. Similar results were obtained if the hybrid was pollinated 



