Varieties of Wheat and Methods of ImproviiKj them. 255 
not hesitate to suppose that some of the old varieties of the last 
century collected by Sir Joseph Banks are still represented by 
modern oH'spring of approved merit, which in some cases may 
exist under changed names. It is impossible to say how long a 
new variety may have been in existence before its discovery ; 
it may have sprung into being like Minerva from the head of 
Jupiter, or it may have been evolved by the slow processes of 
change, or it may have been the result of cross-breeding. All 
these methods by which new varieties are formed take place in 
nature. Who can tell what is going on among the millions of 
plants in a wheat-field ? 
Dr. Maxwell T. Masters has been good enough to inform 
me as to the exact meaning of the term " sport," referring to a 
phenomenon which sometimes occasions the sudden appearance 
of a new variety. He states that " a sport is usually understood 
to be a leaf-bud or shoot appearing suddenly in one particular 
part of the plant, and difiering in character from its other buds 
and shoots." The production of side buds (secondary axes), 
usually called tillering, yields a number of ears of similar 
character. When, however, one of the ears differs from the 
rest — if this ever happens — it is a sport. Sometimes the off- 
spring of a sport exhibit the same altered character as the 
parent ear, and the character proves permanent. This may be 
one source of new varieties, but M. de Vilmorin informs me 
that no sports have ever appeared in his wheat plots, and there 
have been only two cases of natural cross-fertilisation. The term 
" sport " is sometimes loosely extended to seedling variations. 
Selection without cross-fertilisation is another method. I am 
not quite sure that any breed of animals can be named whose 
improvement has been accomplished without the introduction of 
fresh blood. It usually happens that the desired qualities can 
be introduced more rapidly by crossing followed by selection 
than by selection only. The same physiological law of modifi- 
cation applies to plants as to animals, and I am pleased to say 
that an improver both of wheat and sheep, who has greatly 
modified the latter without cross-breeding, is at the jiresent time 
applying the same method to the improvement of wheat. The 
gentleman I refer to, Mr. Alfred de Mornay, of Col d'Arbres, 
Wallingford — famous for the early maturity of his Hampshire 
sheep — has been good enough to send me the following report. 
He says : — 
I am tryino: to carry out a system for the improvement of cereals on tlie 
lines I have followed with sheep, and I think with some success; but before 
a positive conclusion can be arrived at from any attempts of the kind in a 
climate so uncertain as this, more time is required than I have as yet 
