28 JOUENAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Very interesting experiments in the hybridisation of Wheats were 
made some years ago by the late Mons. Henri de Vilmorin, and the 
results have some considerable bearing upon the subject in hand. I may 
'here quote the crosses made both ways between Triticum sativum and 
T. Spelta, because both kinds are recognised by the " Index Kewensis " as 
specifically distinct. In both cases the hybrids were perfectly fertile, the 
■characters were intermediate, and there was no return to either parent. 
The next sowing (the second generation of the hybrid, in which variation 
and reversion so often appear) did produce variation, but still without 
return to either parent. This information I have from a pamphlet kindly 
sent me by Mons. Philippe de Vilmorin, extracted from the Bulletin de 
la Societe Botanique de France," tome xxvii. p. 358. 
The following notes are of interest, but both parents are regarded by 
:the " Index Kewensis " as belonging to the species T. vulgare {sativum). 
They are from the same pamphlet. In conclusion, with reference to 
these three following crosses, Mons. H. de Vilmorin draws attention to 
the evidence of what Mons. Naudin has very justly called the " variation 
desordonnee " of plants obtained from crosses between forms somewhat 
-distant from one another. Then he says that, like Mons. Naudin, he has 
found this variation in the second generation. The result of the hybridi- 
sation is an intermediate plant ; but in the next generation suddenly 
appear characters which are quite different from those of the parents : 
heredity suffers a great disturbance. Attention is next drawn to the 
appearance of characters which belong to neither parent, but which do 
belong to other kinds of Wheat. If, then, he says, these forms can be 
-fixed in their present characters, it will be very difficult to doubt that 
most of the races of Wheat, commonly regarded as distinct species, can 
-only be but variations of one and the same plant. Such, indeed, is likely 
to be the case (must be the case, if we consider a sufficiently remote 
period) ; but, in my opinion, some of these variations have attained the 
rank and condition of species. 
T. sativum var. x T. durum var. — Two plants were first obtained, 
ihe one quite like the other. The crop from these plants, however, gave 
the most diverse forms. No two plants were alike, and not one produced 
the character of either parent. There were plants referable to both the 
parent species, but others referable to T. turgidmn, and still others 
approaching to T. Sjyelta, which is surprising in a descent from T. sa tivum 
and T. durum. 
T. sativum var. x T. turgidum var. — The two plants obtained were 
strikingly like those of the preceding cross. Eesown they produce the 
most curious mixture of Wheats, dwarf and tall, with and without awns, 
spikes extraordinarily thin or excessively compact. Above all to be re- 
marked was the production, in each lot, of a Wheat which presented all 
the characters of T. durum, but without awns — a thing having no example 
in that species. 
T. sativum var. x T. turgidum var. — The one plant selected out of 
five or six showed the influence of the male parent only by slightly in- 
creased enlargement or swelling {renflcment) of the spikelets, by their 
irregular disposition upon the axis, and by the rudiments of awns towards 
the apex of the spike. From this one plant came Wheats of all sorts, 
