4 
The Ohio Naturalist, 
[Vol. IV, No. 1 , 
others, and the first offspring shows the characters of the starain- 
ate parent in a marked degree, especially in the character of seeds 
and fruits. This immediate, or direct effect of pollen upon the 
character of seeds and fruits Focke, (5) has termed xenia, a phe- 
nomenon which has long been more or less puzzling to botanists 
and plant breeders. Just how such an effect was brought about 
was not definitely understood, and it is only a few 3’ears since that 
ail}' phenomenon has been known which could be called upon for 
a reasonable solution of the problem and that a tentative expla- 
nation has been offered. In 1898 Nawa.schin (10) reported the 
process of double fertilization in Lilium martagon and Fritillaria 
teiiella. Guignard (6) soon followed with a full description of 
the jirocess, adding figures of the more interesting phases, and 
claimed that the process was not peculiar to the Liliaceae but 
very general in the Phanerogams. In corroboration of this 
author’s statement, the process has been observed in many plants 
by a number of investigators. The corn plant, however, is the 
one among the many observed in which the process of xenia is 
well established and belief in the phenomenon seems to rest mainly 
u})on its constant occurrence in this plant. \'ihnorin (12) 
observed xenia in corn as earh’ as 1866. Hildebrandt also report- 
ed it the following year and in 1872 Koernicke (8) made a similar 
report. These authors used seeds that were pure so far as known. 
Some years later American botanists took up the subject for 
investigation. Sturtevant in 1883 made the first report. Burrill 
reported the process in 1887; Kellerman and Swingle in 1S88, and 
McCluer in 1892. But some doubt attaches to their findings becau.se 
the seeds used were not known to be pure. Moreover, the process 
was apparently contrary to certain well-established laws of repro- 
duction and embryology, errors could easily have been made in 
conducting the experiments; and until some explanation could be 
given for the phenomenon, botanists looked upon the matter with 
some suspicion. The explanation was left to DeVries (3). In 
a recent preliminary article ‘ ‘ On the hybrid fecundation of the 
Albumen,” he suggests the act of double fertilization as explana- 
tory of the phenomenon of xenia ; and although as late as 1900 
no detailed researches on the embryology of corn or any of the 
cereals or gra.sses had been made, nor any direct observations that 
were conclusive that double fertilization occurred in corn, Webber 
( 13), holding the same opinion as DeVries (3), proceed to con- 
duct some experiments on the subject. His seed corn was pure 
so far as known, and the results, published in 1900, elicited his 
conclusion ‘‘that xenia does occur in maize, whatever its 
interpretation may be.” Correns (2) about the same time 
reported observations practically similar to those of De \’ries. 
The following year Guignard (7) removed all doubt of the occur- 
rence of double fertilization in corn by his publication of a paper 
