34 MAINE STATE COLLEGFl. 



hundrotl and twenty-five named varieties, including flint, dent, 

 pop, and sweet corns. That tlie flint and dent varieties often 

 exhibit a change the current year, however, is abundantly 

 proved by the work of the other experimenters referred to ; 

 though all agree that the change is most readily seen in sweet 

 corn, and least so in the flint varieties. In this connection, also, 

 Sturtevant makes the statement that "cross-bred corn has a 

 greater tendency to current cross-fertilization than has purely 

 bred corn"* — a condition we should naturally expect from the 

 variable tendency of hybrids and cross-breeds. While there would 

 seem to be no doubt as to the immediate influence of foreign 

 pollen in the case of corn, it is not improbable that Avhat is in 

 reality seminal effect, may sometimes be credited to the immediate 

 action of the foreign pollen. 



Darwin cites numerous instaucesf to prove the existence of an 

 immediate effect of crossing and though some of the examples to 

 which he gave credence are now discredited, many of them are 

 apparently well authenticated. 



Seeds of Matthiola annua are normally of a light brown color, 

 while those of M. incana are violet black ; yet M. annua crossed 

 by M. incana yielded about fifty per cent, of black seeds. Flowers 

 of the orange fertilized b}^ pollen from a lemon tree produced fruit 

 bearing a longitudinal stripe of peel having the color, flavor and 

 other characters of the lemon. Recent observations in this country 

 and in Europe would appear to confirm the statements regarding 

 citrus fruits, i: Sabine§ cites an instance in which the form of the 

 ovary of Amaryllis vittata was altered hy the application of foreign 

 pollen ; while Maximowicz made reciprocal crosses between Lilium, 

 bulbiferum and L. davuricum and found "each species produced 

 fruit almost identical with the pollen bearing species." || Fritz 

 Miiller crossed Cattleya Leopoldi by Epidendron cinnaharianum^ 

 and obtained a marked change in the form of the seeds. ^ 



Wiododendron dalhousice crossed by Rhododendron Nutallii is 

 cited by Darwin as an example of the increased size of ovary result- 

 ing from the action of foreign pollen, while Arabis hlepharophylla 

 crossed by A. Soyeri produced pods larger than either parent 

 species.** Darwin also gives credence to the story of the St. 



* 3rd Eep. N. Y. Ag. Exp. Sta., 149. 



t An. and Pits. Under Domest., I, 428 et seq. 



t See Repts. Am. Pom. Soc, 1889 and 1891. 



§ Trans. Lond. Hort. Soc, V, 69. 



II Darwin, An. and Pits. Under Domest., I, 431. 



ir Ibid. 



** I bid, 432. ,'- - 



