HOW TO GEOW GOOD COUN. 1G5 



after year, and so preserved the original typo with 

 which we started. The preserved seeds were sown in 

 fresh plots year by year, but — perhaps owing to the 

 coldness of the soil and the general lower climate of 

 the Cotteswolds — progress was only slow at first ; 

 however, in the warm summer of 1859 our plot of 

 the season had made fresh advances, which will be 

 best understood by an examination of the accom- 

 panying drawings. 



Pig. 3 represents a spikelet of the type of JEgilops 

 ovata, introduced into our garden in 1855. In this 

 some of the pales have double awns, others single 

 ones. Pig. 4, a spikelet of 1859, modified by cultiva- 

 tion. In this the awns are single. Pig. 5, a spikelet 

 from an ear of bearded wheat. 



Now, the close affinity of these three forms must 

 strike any one; but we feel justified in concluding 

 that, had not our experiments been peremptorily 

 stopped, and the results, as far as possible, spoiled 

 from the ignorance and jealousy of the new Principal, 

 we should before this have arrived at results much 

 more satisfactory. 



The principles of the observed changes will bo 

 understood by stating the following facts. 



a. JEgilops ovata has a seed of sufficient size to bo 

 called a corn grain, and which, though not so large 

 as that of wheat, yet rapidly improves by cultivation, 

 which includes selection. 



b. The rac/iis (the part on which the spikelets 

 arc placed in the wild grass) is exceedingly brittle, 

 so that it readily breaks into bits below each 

 spikelet; this brittleness annually gets less under 

 cultivation. 



