Mr. Veitch, replying to my remarks regarding the cross-breeding of wheat, says that " the cause of failure is owing to the fact that wheat is cleisto-gamous," and that necessarily fertilization takes place while yet the flowers are within the folds of the sheaths. There was no failure in the first place, and in the second if there had been it would not necessarily have been due to the fact of the flowers being cleistogamous. A sharp-pointed stick serves to part the palets and glumes, thus revealing the pistils and stamens. If then the anthers be removed, while yet immature, and pollen be introduced from other varieties of wheat, any seeds that form must be cross-bred.

The peculiarity I noted in the remarks to which Mr. Veitch refers, was that so many of our crossbred seeds should so closely resemble the mother parent. I have crossed no less than 2,000 flowers of wheat, and we have now growing thirty kinds, which are different from either parent. All the rest have been rejected because they could not be determined from the mother variety.

It is very plain to those who have tried to cross wheats that the) cannot cross through natural agencies - wind or insects. But it is just as plain that a cross can be easily effected by carefully spreading apart the sheaths, removing the green anthers and inserting other anthers when ripe (or gathered pollen), when the stigmas are receptive.