234 MENDELISM 
inheritance of a number of comparatively simple 
characters, many of which have little practical impor- 
tance. But the fact of their strictly Mendelian be- 
haviour showed the possibility of readily obtaining any 
desired combination of them, and at the same time 
rendered it highly probable that characters of a more 
practical value to the farmer would prove similarly 
amenable to the breeder’s art. 
Thus Biffen found that the following pairs of 
characters, among others, exhibited simple Mendelian 
phenomena, the one placed first being in each case the 
dominant : 
Beardless ears. Bearded ears. 
Keeled glumes. Round glumes. 
Felted glumes. Glabrous glumes. 
Red chaff. White chaff. 
Red grain. White grain. 
Thick and hollow stem. Thin and solid stem. 
And so on. In other cases, again, the F, generation 
showed a character intermediate between those of 
the parents, and in F, there appeared a ratio corre- 
sponding to A: 2Aa:a. 
Thus when Polish wheat (early) was crossed with 
Rivet wheat (late), the time of ripening of the F, 
generation was intermediate between those of the 
parents. In F,, 103 early, 210 intermediate, and 
too Jate plants, were counted. Time of ripening is, 
moreover, clearly a character which may be of con- 
siderable practical importance. 
In further illustration of what can be done from a com- 
mercial point of view, we will consider the case of two 
other characters only—rust immunity and ‘strength.’ 
