24 
Agricultural Experiment Station 
of its own species, but it never fails to set fruit with its own pollen. 
Very often when it seems impossible to secure a hybrid, when all con¬ 
ditions seem to be complied with, the reverse cross might yield abundant 
results. As an example of this kind we may cite such as Y. vinifera, Y. 
bourquiniana, Y. labrusca, Y. cordifolia and probably others which, 
readily hybridize with Y. rotundifolia and Y. munsoniana when the 
latter two species are used as the pollen parents, but will not hybridize 
as readily when the positions of the parents are reversed. 
e. The hybridizer must not be easily discouraged when positive results, 
are not immediately forthcoming. He must try and try again until 
success follows his efforts. In the case of the Rotundifolia-Yinifera 
hybrid, when Yinifera was used as the male parent, we worked with 28 
flower clusters which comprised no less than 500 individual flowers- 
before a hybrid was secured. 
/. When hybrid seeds have finally been secured, great care must be 
exercised in the handling of the seedbed, otherwise untoward conditions 
may kill the hybrid vines and nullify all the previous work. The damp¬ 
ing-off disease is the archenemy of the seedlings in the seedbed, and to 
protect the young plants from it requires the greatest of care and 
vigilance. With the amateur, the word hybrid is very often considered 
as almost synonymous with great vigor and strength, and the fact that 
hybrids of wide parentage ofter require the greatest of care and protec¬ 
tion is learned only when too late. 
g. Occasionally when we sow seeds of supposedly hybrid origin and 
when the utmost care has been bestowed on the emasculation of hermaph¬ 
roditic grape flowers, we get a mixed lot of selfed seedlings, together 
with hybrids, if by chance such were produced. Beach (1) mentions 
this self-fertilization of the grape flowers in the bud in the case of 
the variety Mills, Dorsey (2) in the case of the varieties Concord and 
Hubbard Seedless, Hedrick and Anthony (3) mention other varieties of 
Euvitis behaving similarly. Our self-fertile varieties and seedlings of 
Y. rotundifolia have proven to be no exception to this fertilization in the 
bud. Euvitis varieties with us have likewise given similar results. If 
this phenomenon is not carefully considered, we may be led into errone¬ 
ous deductions in regard to the transmission of characters from the 
parental to the E 1 generation vines. When two varieties of the same 
species are to be hybridized, the selfed seedlings may not be detected 
and contradictory results may develop; if, however, the parental vines 
are of widely different types, the two kinds of offspring seedling vines 
can generally be recognized at once by their general appearance. It is 
here that several prominent Rotundifolia grape breeders apparently 
have fallen into erroneous conclusions.* 
h. Finally the hybrid nature of a seedling is proof positive that 
hybridization has been effected between two given individuals. 
* See False Hybrids in our next bulletin which will be entitled, “Some F Hybrids be¬ 
tween Vitis Rotundifolia and Related Species.” 
