ARTIFICIAL HYBRID COWPEAS OF KNOWN ORIGIN. 33 



tion for several years past by Mr. F. A. Spragg. A single instance 

 of the record is here given. Uniform black seed from a single plant 

 grown in 1906, sown in 1907, contained in its progeny the following 

 colors of seeds: Black, brownish, purple black, blackeye, black and 

 white, like Holstein, and buff. A mass selection was made of these 

 different-colored seeds, but all plants which contained two or more 

 kinds of seeds were discarded. Out of these colors Black and Black- 

 eye were selected, care being taken to discard any plants in which 

 the seed was not uniform. The Black in 1908 produced Black, Hol- 

 stein with large seeds and with small seeds, Watson, Black with the 

 chalazal end white, black-and-buff marbled, and both large and small 

 forms having white seeds with a large black saddle. In the progeny 

 of the Blackeye were the following colors of seeds besides blackeye, 

 namely, brownish, buff, Watson, browneye, blotched brown and 

 white, and purplish black, some of the last and of the brownish hav- 

 ing the chalazal end white. In 1909 Black selected from Black 

 produced brown with a black eye, as well as black Watson which 

 bred true. Buff produced the following colors of seed : Buff, brown- 

 ish, and browneye. in the last the eye often extending over the 

 micropylar end. Blackeye selected from Blackeye planted in 1909 

 produced the following colors of seeds: Blackeye, blackeye with 

 several to many small spots on the back, black with the back or only 

 the chalazal end white. The Browneye with the eye extending over 

 the micropylar end produced plants with true Browneye seeds as well 

 as others with seeds like the parent. 



These Michigan hybrids are evidently even more complex than 

 those produced at Madison, Ind. They give rise to numerous sug- 

 gestions regarding the origin of certain colors which appear in cow- 

 pea seeds which only careful experiments with reference to their 

 Mendelian behavior will make entirely clear. Extensive investiga- 

 tions of this nature are being carried out by Prof. W. J. Spiliman. 



ARTIFICIAL HYBRID COWPEAS OF KNOWN ORIGIN. 



Perhaps the first artificial hybrids of cowpeas, at least in this 

 country, were those made by Prof. C. L. Xewman at the Arkansas 

 Agricultural Experiment Station in 1893. These hybrids, samples 

 of all of which were presented by the originator to the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, are especially interesting on account of 

 the light thrown on the distribution of color in the seed coats. They 

 show clearly that separate factors in cowpeas bring about distribution 

 of colors and dilution of colors. In most of the Newman hybrids one 

 parent was either a black-eyed or a white pea. Where one parent 

 had black seeds and the other black-eyed seeds, among the hybrids 

 were found Watson's Hybrid (Nos. 17417, 17424, 22716, 22718, 22719, 

 22721) and Holstein (Nos. 17410 and 22720). In the former the 

 2968°— Bui. 229—12 3 



