On the transformation of Aegilops into wheat / by Professor Henfrey.

  • Arthur Henfrey
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the transformation of Aegilops into wheat / by Professor Henfrey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    observations appeared in the ' Annales de la Society Linneenve de Lyon,'' nouvelle serie, iv.; those of MM. Greenland and Vihnorin in the ' Bulletin de la Society Botanique de France,' iv. p. 573 (1856), and in the Berlin ' Jahrhucher fur wissenschaftliche Botanik; i. p. 514 (1858). It is necessary to notice that the French botanists now distin- guish the plant finally resulting from M. Fabre's experiments, under the name of ^yilops speltaforviis, from the form which occurs wild and is a simple hybrid, the j^yilops triticoides, of Requien. On tJte Natural and Artificial Fertilization of ^^gilops by Triticum. By Dr. Godron. Notwithstanding that the attention of naturalists was awakened, more than a century ago, to tlie consideration of hybridity in the vegetable kingdom, the investigation of hybrid plants developed spontaneously was for a long time neglected. Yet this study is not only very interesting in itself, but, in addition, possesses undeniable scientific importance. On the one hand crossing often renders certain species of plants very critical, and the determination of these becomes almost impossible if we do not carefully distinguish the forms arising through hybridation from those which constitute genuine specific types. By this means Messrs. A. Braun, Koch, VVimmer, Fries, Nageli, Lang, &c., have succeeded in elucidating certain genera of plants previously almost inextricable, and which were the despair of descriptive botanists. Of this we have examples in the genera Cirsiuin and Carduus (thistlesl, Mentha (mints), Ver- bascum (mulleins), Foli/t/onum (docks), and Salix (willows). On the other hand, hybrids, when fertile, tend to return after a certain number of generations to one of the two types which have given them birth ; and as the crossings may take place in opposite directions, we sometimes meet with complete series of intermediate forms between two perfectly distinct species. Thus, M. Grenier has gathered, in a meadow in the environs of Pontarlier, such a series of forms between ]Va7-cissus pseudo- narcissus and N. poeticus ; and M. le Jolis has likewise observed a complete set of individuals presenting all the modifications which can exist between Ulex nanus and U. europa'us, compre- hending in the midst of them U. Gallii. Other exactly similar instances might be cited. An observer, having before him one of these series which appear to unite and blend two species incontestably distinct.