Experiments with Different Varieties of Wheat. 49 
and for the sake of convenience this form of ear will be 
referred to subsequently as the intermediate type. The same 
form of ear was produced whether the club wheat was the 
male or female parent. 
The grain of these plants when sown did not breed true 
to the intermediate shape, but produced individuals with lax, 
intermediate, and dense ears (Fig. 1, F 2 ). These plants 
occurred in the proportions of 1:2:1. The plants with lax 
ears were similar to the one parent, those with dense to the 
other, whilst the intermediates were similar to the plant pro- 
duced as the result of the cross. No other types were found, 
although some thousands of plants were raised, so that crossing 
did not give rise to the miscellaneous progeny it is often sup- 
posed to and the types appearing showed the parental and 
hybrid characters only. On making trial sowings of these 
three types, the lax and dense were found to breed true 
to these characters, whilst the intermediate ears again split 
up, giving rise once more to plants with either lax, inter- 
mediate, or dense ears, in the proportion of 1 : 2 : 1 (Fig. 1, 
F 3 ). The plants with the ear shape characteristic of the actual 
cross-bred behave in the same fashion, then, as the cross-bred 
itself when a further generation is raised. Numerous similar 
crosses have been grown, and all of these have given identical 
results. 
The explanation offered by the Mendelist is that the hybrid 
forms sex cells or gametes which carry the characters in a pure 
and not a blended condition. Some of its pollen grains and 
egg cells carry the dense character ; others, the lax ; these are 
produced in approximately equal proportions. On fertilisation, 
then, the chances of combination are : — 
4 
Pollen grains Egg cells 
Where ' the gametes carrying the lax character meet, the 
resulting plant has lax ears ; similarly where dense meets dense, 
only a dense eared form can be produced ; but where lax and 
dense or dense and lax meet, then, as we know from the 
original cross, the progeny will have intermediate ears. No 
other combinations save these four are possible, a fact which 
accounts satisfactorily for the ratio of 1 : 2 : 1 . 
The cases which Mendel himself investigated are at first 
sight a little more complex than the one described here. The 
inheritance of the bearded and beardless characters in wheat 
is, however, of the same order as Mendel’s cases with peas. 
VOL. 67. E 
