PLAXXIXG A XEW PLANT 209 



Professor Biffin was able to make an imme- 

 diate practical application of his experiments 

 through which he developed a new race of wheat 

 that is proving of great economic importance. 

 It appears that the best races of British wheat 

 have been peculiarly susceptible to the fungous 

 pest known as rust. There are, however, certain 

 races of wheat that are immune to the pest; but 

 unfortunately these produce a very poor quality 

 of grain. 



Professor Biffin found that susceptibility and 

 immunity to rust constitute a pair of unit char- 

 acters, in which susceptibility is prepotent or 

 dominant. 



When he crossed the susceptible grain with 

 the immune one, he therefore produced an entire 

 generation of susceptible grain. 



His experiment had seemingly gone back- 

 ward, quite as in the case of my first generation 

 of white blackberries. 



But in the ensuing generation the recessive 

 character of immunity reasserted itself; and, 

 combined with this desired character, in a certain 

 proportion of the progeny, there appeared the 

 other desired quality of a good variety of grain 

 of fine resisting qualities. 



So by the appHcation of this principle of the 

 segregation and recombination of unit charac- 



