Selection of Elementary Species 113 



cultural Museum. The " Hopetown wheat" 

 has proved to be a constant variety, excelling 

 the ordinary " Hunter's wheat " by larger 

 grains and longer heads; it yields likewise a 

 straw of superior quality and has become quite 

 popular in large districts of England and Scot- 

 land, where it is known by the name of ' ' White 

 Hunter's " from its origin and the brilliant 

 whiteness of its heads. 



In the same way Shirreff's oats were discov- 

 ered in a single plant in a field where it was 

 isolated in order to be brought into commerce 

 after multiplication. It has won the surname 

 of " Make-him-rich. " Nothing is on record 

 about the details of its origin. 



Four valuable new varieties of wheat and 

 oats were obtained in this way in less than forty 

 years. Then Shirreff changed his ideas and his 

 method of working. Striking specimens ap- 

 peared to be too rare, and the expectation of a 

 profitable result too small. Therefore he be- 

 gan work on a larger scale. He sought and 

 selected during the summer of 1857 seventy 

 heads of wheat, each from a single plant show- 

 ing some marked and presumably favorable pe- 

 culiarity. These were not gathered on one 

 field, but were brought together from all the 

 fields to which he had access in his vicinity. 

 The grains of each of these selected heads were 



