May 10, 1924 
“Hairy Neck ” Wheat Segregates from Hybrids 
575 
small, 4 but if such occurred and fertilization were effected with a pollen grain 
from wheat or rye, respectively, the F x type would be expected in the following 
generation. This has been seldom, if ever, realized. Individuals with certain 
rye characters and others showing little rye influence morphologically but exhibit¬ 
ing a high degree of sterility are to be found, however, in all generations so far 
grown, though the number of such individuals diminishes annually. The 
increasing resemblance to wheat and the increasing fertility is supposed to be 
accompanied by progressive change in the chromosome number and constitution 
in the direction of the wheat type. This would be comparable to the phenomena 
observed by Sax (13) in hybrids between wheat groups with different chromo¬ 
some numbers. 
The hairy-neck character dealt with in this paper is an # example of a definite 
rye character present in individuals of the F 6 generation which may be traced to 
the original rye parent, the parent with the lesser number of chromosomes. In 
other respects the selections possessing the hairy necks appear similar to wheat, 
and exhibit very little sterility. This is of interest and possibly of importance, 
inasmuch as the result obtained in interspecific wheat crosses, made with the aim 
of combining desirable characters of two species, have been disappointing for 
the most part, as the segregates reverted to the parental types, seldom showing 
recombinations of characters of both parents. The previously reported segre¬ 
gates of wheat-rye hybrids nearly always reverted rapidly to wheat, but it 
appears from the results reported above that it is possible to obtain plants com¬ 
bining certain characters of the wheat and rye parents. 
LITERATURE CITED 
(1) [Cabman, E. S.] 
1894. kuralisms. [Two Rural New Yorker Wheats, no. 57 and no. 6.] 
Rural New Yorker 53: 634-635, illus. 
(2) Fruwirth, C. 
1910. DIE ZUCHTUNG DER LANDWIRTSCHAFTLICHEN KULTURPFLANZEN. 
Aufl. 2, Bd. 4. Berlin. 
(3) Gaines, E. F., and Stevenson, F. J. 
1922. rye-wheat and wheat-rye hybrids. Jour. Heredity 13: 81-90, 
illus. 
(4) Jesenko, F. 
1913. uber getreide-speziesbastarde (weizen-roggen). Ztschr. 
Induk. Abstam. u. Vererb. 10: 311-326, illus. 
(5) Kihara, H. 
1919. UBER CYTOLOGISCHE STUDIEN BEI EINIGEN GETREIDEARTEN. 
MITTEILUNG I. SPEZIES-BASTARDE DES WEIZENS UND WEIZEN- 
roggen-bastard. Bot. Mag. Tokyo 33: 17-38. 
(6) Leighty, C. E. 
1915. natural wheat-rye hybrids. Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron. 7: 
209-216, illus. 
(7) - anc l Hutcheson, T. B. 
1919. ON THE BLOOMING AND FERTILIZATION OF WHEAT FLOWERS. 
Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron. 11: 143-162. 
( 8 ) - 
1920. natural wheat-rye hybrids of 1918. Jour. Heredity 11: 
129-136, illus. 
4 Once each in over 2 million gametes. 
