343 Mr. B, Clarke on the Production of Varieties 



of them proved to be males, it was concluded that some male 

 plants must have been growing in the neighbourhood. Among 

 them, however, was a plant having a peculiar appearance, and it 

 was found that instead of the two opposite or somewhat alternate 

 leaves which Hemp usually has, it had three regularly opposite 

 leaves at each node, which was continued qiiite to the summit of 

 the inflorescence. The plant being a female, it was fertilized by 

 the flowers of a male, the inflorescence of which had for the 

 most part been cut off, to give an increased luxuriance to the 

 remaining part, and an abundance of seed was produced. From 

 this seed twenty plants were raised, and six of them not only 

 have thi'ce leaves opposite, but five of them germinated with 

 three equal opposite cotyledons ; and in two instances, two em- 

 bryos were produced, in one of them the two being adherent by 

 their cauliculi. Of the five plants with three cotyledons, a 

 part are males, so that a permanent tricotyledonous variety could 

 most probably be produced by cultivation, particularly as the 

 tricotyledonous plants are all of them amongst the largest, the 

 greater part of the dicotyledonous being comparatively small. 



This unexpected result suggested that by cutting away the 

 greater part of the inflorescence of a plant just before flowering, 

 so as to give the remaining flowers an increased quantity of sap, 

 improved varieties might be produced. For this purpose a 

 variety of red wheat was allowed to grow till it became evident 

 the ears had begun to form, although they had not protruded 

 from their sheaths; and all the smaller stems were then cut 

 away, leaving only two, the upper half of each ear being sub- 

 sequently cut off, as soon as it began to protrude from its sheath, 

 by which it was expected a vigour would be acquired by the re- 

 maining anthers which could not otherwise be attained. During 

 their progress to maturity, fresh shoots frequently sprang from 

 the roots, which were always removed as soon as they appeared. 

 Of this seed five grains were planted the following autumn, and 

 although grown under circumstances less favourable than the 

 year before, the ears were decidedly longer, from an increased 

 length of the rachis, giving them a peculiar appearance* ; and 

 one of the ears had five of its spikelets containing fiv^e seeds 

 each, fom- being the highest number of the year before f. It 

 may therefore be supposed that an increased vigour in growth 



* An ear had been kept, which allowed the comparison to be made. 



t Wheat-ears having some of the spikelets ' five-set,' are found occa- 

 sionally in the most luxuriant corn-fields (on the borders of them only), 

 but ai'c not known to occur under other circumstances ; but this plant was 

 grown in poor groimd, being only 3 feet high, and this same variety of 

 wheat, when it is ' five-set,' has not the increased length of ear alluded to 

 as an effect of the experiment. 



