Hybridization 



137 



This list of hybrids is much more meager than most 

 catalogues and trade-lists would have us believe. It is, 

 of course, equivalent to saying that most of the so-called 

 hybrid fruits and vegetables are doubtful. There is every- 



FIG. 40. Teosinte and its hybrids with Indian corn : a and &, ears of 

 teosinte, showing an entire absence of cob, kernels being attached to 

 each other ; c and d, ears of first-generation cross of teosinte and 

 Indian corn ; e and /, Zea canina, a fourth-generation hybrid of 

 teosinte and corn. All are natural size and were grown by the 

 Department of Agriculture in 1900 on the Potomac Flats, near 

 Washington, B.C. 



where a misconception of what a hybrid is, and how it 

 comes to exist ; and yet, perhaps because of this indefinite 

 knowledge, there is a wide-spread feeling that a hybrid 

 is necessarily good, while the presumption is directly 

 the opposite. The identity of a hybrid in the popular 



