694 
Cross-fertilisation of Cereals. 
production of the crosses. The Spelt has been employed chiefly 
in the hope of obtaining a variety which would inherit from it a 
seed so entirely enclosed in the glumes as not to fall out in the 
harvesting, and thus prevent the loss which takes place in the 
wheats commonly under cultivation. The flinty seeds of hard 
wheat and the abundant cropping of grey wheat supplied pro- 
perties that it was desirable to combine in one variety. After 
several years’ crossing a selection was made of the most hopeful 
varieties, and these have been under careful cultivation for three 
years. In fig. 3 are represented eleven of these composite crosses 
grown in 1893, all of which are the progeny of a selected plant of 
the harvest of 1 390. The tendency to sport, so obvious in these 
specimens, results, as we have already stated, from the number 
of parents employed to produce the plant of 1 890, from the seed 
of which these have been grown ; and the important work of the 
Messrs. Garton is now to obtain pure and fixed varieties from 
these and the other forms they have produced. 
A careful examination of the eleven specimens figured will 
show the properties that have been inherited from the different 
parents. No. 1 is a large ear. showing characteristics derived 
from Hardcastle and Mainstay ; the ear has a half more spike- 
lets, each of which bears an increased number of larger grains 
than are found in the parents. In No. 2 the ear is shorter and 
more compact, qualities which have been observed in wheats 
that are not liable to be laid. Nos. 3 to 6 have the characters 
of the Spelt parent most strongly impressed on them. No. 5 
differs from the parent Spelt in the larger spikelets, and in their 
greater compactness on the main axis of the ear. Nos. 3 and 4 
are more removed from the Spelt by characters obtained from 
the commonly cultivated varieties. No. 6 is a branched ear, in 
which the spikelets have produced two normal seeds, and then 
the axis, instead of bearing the two or three additional flowers 
which ordinarily make up the spikelet, is developed into a 
secondary axis, bearing spikelets after the manner of a normal 
main axis, but smaller. This monstrosity is similar to that 
causing the branched variety of Grey Wheat ( T . turgidwn, L.), 
which is known as Mummy Wheat (T. decompositum, L.). In 
No. 7 the Spelt element is obvious, though considerably in- 
fluenced by a Bearded Wheat of a common cultivated variety, 
which formed one of the several parents. In Nos. 8 and 9 
the influence of the Grey Wheat is obvious. No. 10 has a 
compact head like No. 2, which is, however, abnormally 
congested in the upper part. No. 11 is nearer to the selected 
Bearded Wheat, but exhibits a decided influence from the Grey 
Wheat. 
