June, 1909.] 



573 



Miscellaneous* 



certain way of obtaining blue Audalu- 

 sians was not to breed from blue birds 

 at all, but to mate together the two 

 kinds of wasters which are simply dis- 

 carded by the ordinary breeders. 



Now the explanation of this curious 

 fact is quite simple. There are no repro- 

 ductive cells corresponding to the blue 

 character. Blue arises as the result of 

 the combined presence of a black and a 

 white factor, and in no other way. And 

 this is shown by the fact that on mating 

 black and white together one gets 

 nothing but blues. If we return to 

 diagram 1 we shall find that it represents 

 this case exactly. A blue bird, arising 

 from the combination of black with 

 white, gives rise to pure black and pure 

 white reproductive cells only. When a 

 pair of such black-bearing reproductive 

 cells meet in fertilisation, a pure black 

 bird is the result, aud in spite of the fact 

 that its parents were blue, the offspring 

 of such a bird when mated with its like 

 will never be anything but black. The 

 proof of this explanation is obtained 

 experimentally as follows : If a blue 

 bird is mated with a black the result is 

 found to be the production of equal 

 numbers of blue and black chicks, but no 

 whites. And if a blue bird is mated 

 with a white one, blue and white chicks 

 only are produced in equal numbers. 

 This seems to amount to clear proof that 

 the blue birds aie producing black 

 and white reproductive cells— or repro- 

 ductive cells bearing the factors for 

 blackness and whiteness— in equal 

 numbers ; it is impossible to explain the 

 result in any other way. 



In such a case as this no amount of 

 selection can lead to the production of a 

 pure strain. On the other hand the 

 strain produced by the meeting of two 

 similar reproductive cells is pure from 

 the very outset, even if the parents 

 from which it arose were both mongrels 

 of the most pronounced description. 

 This is entirely contrary to the ideas of 

 old-fashioned breeders, for whom a pure 

 strain was a pure-bred strain. If a long 

 series of ancestors all alike could be 

 pointed to the strain was considered 

 pure, and the longer the series of ances- 

 tors the purer the breed became. Now 

 we know that there is no such thing as 

 relative purity, a strain is either pure in 

 respect of any particular character, or it 

 is not. 



As usual, in the case of an almost 

 universal belief, the view of the or- 

 thodox breeder has a certain element of 

 truth in it. The breeder has not been 

 accustomed to regard separate charac- 

 ters separately, but to look at a parti- 

 cular animal as a whole, and in this case 

 a long pedigree wilJ certainly indicate 



that a consideiable number of the 

 factors of the breed are present in the 

 pure condition, for in the case of any 

 domestic breed a very large number of 

 separate factors have to be reckoned 

 with, comparable with those which we 

 have been discussing. 



In our next article we shall deal with 

 the behaviour of more than one pair of 

 alternative characters in heredity, and 

 with the explanation which has recently 

 been put forward with regard to the 

 phenomenon of reversion to a remote 

 ancestor. 



R. H. L. 



SCHOOL-GARDENING IN THE 

 PHILIPPINES. 



(From the Queensland Agricultural 

 Journal, Vol. XXL, Part I, 

 July, 1908.) 



Whilst school-gardening is in its 

 infancy in Queensland, we find that it is 

 made a serious business of the West 

 Indies and in the Philippine Islands. 

 Following is an account taken from the 

 report of Mr. North H. Foreman, super- 

 vising teacher at Lubao-Aringay, La 

 Union, Philippines, on school-gardening 

 in that province, published in the 

 " Philippine Agricultural Review" :— 



Last year, during the month of Janu- 

 ary, a contribution list for the pur- 

 chase of seeds was begun in each school. 

 No assessments were made, and no 

 amount stated as desired. As a result 

 of this effort we soon had on hand 

 P35 of seed money, I personally 

 assured each pupil a garden and seed 

 for the same. Every teacher was 

 required to keep a list of the names of 

 all pupils who contributed, and the 

 amount, This list is filed in my office, 

 and is now used in the distribution of 

 seeds to pupils for home gardens. In 

 no case was there a contribution of more 

 than 5 centavos, and the most of the 

 contributions were 2 and 3 centavos 

 each. Eggs, coconuts, pineapples, &c, 

 were accepted, and sold in the markets. 

 The sum raised was spent chiefly with 

 a firm in Chicago and one in Los Angeles, 

 for the purchase of about 50 lbs. of 

 seed, which arrived by mail during the 

 month of May, The seed consisted of 

 seventy -four varieties, many of which 

 were unknown in the Philippines. I 

 found it advantageous to buy in bulk, as 

 in this way you get many more seeds for 

 a given amount of money, and many of 

 our varieties were received in J lb. and 

 i lb. packets. The seeds were divided 

 among the different barrios, according 

 fo the amount of contribution, and all 



