BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 125 
would meet the case ; but for working purposes something shorter 
is required, though we cannot suggest how it should be provided. 
here can, we think, be no doubt that, as shown by Mr. Hiern, 
according to the rule of i ee neglect of which es Bentham 
and Hooker in their Genera Plantarum and by other Kew botanists 
ee tended criatiy to the increase of synonymy—Hemimeris must 
be — for the genus to which the original species, H. bone- 
spet L., belongs; although we note that (probably owing to an 
sreesighs) ps is not so employed by Drs. Kuntze and Post in their 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, éc. 
At the oti of the Linnean Society on 18th February, Mr. 
R. H. Biffen read a paper on ‘* Mendel’s Laws — ie application 
to Wheat Hybrids, ” illustrating his remarks with lantern-slides. 
An investigation of the various characters of the different races and 
i of wheat showed that the following characters were domi- 
ant :—Beardless pale, keeled glumes, lax ears, velvet chaff, grey 
coloration, red coloration in the chaff, and red coloration in the 
grain; the corresponding recessive characters being bearded pales, 
foniad glumes, Fe ears, glabrous chaff, white coloration in the 
chaff and grain. In the second generation the plants showed the 
usual splitting into three showing the dominant character to one 
showing the recessive, with the “exception of the rough chaff of 
Rivet wheat, which in several cases was followed by impure splitting 
r 
pure. An example of a hybrid intermediate in character between 
its parents ee afforded ed Ears Wheat x Rivet. oe progeny 
ment of sclerenchyma girders, the presence or absence of pith in 
the internodes, also followed Mendel’s Laws. The sais also ap- 
pears to be true of certain ‘‘ constitutional ’’ characters, such as the 
time of ripening and the immunity to attacks of rust. 
A same meeting Mr. W. Bateson exhibited a large series of 
Primula eae. lent by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, illustrating the 
phenomena of heredity and — which he had me permitted 
to witness! in their nurseries during five seasons. As was well known, 
the species, since its introduction about 1820, had ayen “off numerous 
mutationa] forms—e.g. fern-leaved, ivy-leaved, the “‘ stellata’’ type, 
and others. Many of these in their inheritance follow simple Men- 
delian rules. Palm-leaf is dominant over fern-leaf and over ivy-leaf, 
reddish stem over green stem and over deep red stem, single flowe 
over double, and each recessive form breeds true or self-fertilization, 
