RACES AND TYPES OF SUGAR BEETS. 49 



conditions. It is interesting to call attention to the 

 same evil effect in intermarriage between cousins, as 

 is so much seen or practiced among the royal families 

 of Europe; there have followed various disorders and 

 bodily weaknesses. In beets the regeneration offers no 

 difficulty, owing to the exceptional size of the pollen 

 and its abundance during the long flowering period. 

 This, combined with the fact that there is but a single 

 ovum, its fertilization is always a certainty as com- 

 pared with like botanical conditions of other plants. 



The pollen has its absolute effect only after it has 

 left the anthers; hence, the reason why the hybridization 

 is most common and becomes one of the greatest diffi- 

 culties to contend with during windy seasons. If these 

 varieties which are of so frequent occurrence be 

 allowed to continue,* the ultimate result will be a very 

 poor seed, possessing very little germinating power. 

 The remedy consists in crossing with better types, 

 which must belong to the same race; otherwise, hybrids 

 would be created and these possessing special atavis- 

 mistic tendencies, the difficulties would be greater than 

 before. Knauer gives an important example in this 

 question by declaring that the Ameliorated Wliite 

 Imperial may be used to regenerate the Klein-Wanzle- 

 ben and vice versa; the latter, to regenerate the former 

 for the simple reason that the Wanzleben race is the 

 same as the Knauer, they having a common parent. 

 In other words, it is the main essential to get a pure 

 ultimate race; if the creation is a bastard the progeny 

 will be bastards. 



The Knauer Imperial variety, created in 1850, 

 held its own for many years, and was once, without 

 doubt, the best variety in existence. Then came the 



*An example may be given of Deirombesque's experience In 

 France. His main object was to create a superior beet ; he crossed an 

 ordinary hardy beet with an acclimated Slleslan. From the resnlting 

 seed, he obtained, apparently, a hardy beet rich in suear; after the 

 third planting the Silesian characteristics had nearly disappeared 

 and there was an absolute reversion to lower forms. 



