Hayes and Garber - Cucurbit Breeding

INTRODUCTION 7
studied the question of the immediate effect of pollen. A variety
of pea with a white seed-coat was fertilized with pollen of a
gray-seeded variety. No immediate influence of pollen was
obtained. However, when the resultant plant was pollinated
by a white variety both gray- and white-seeded sorts were obtained
in the next generation. William Herbert was a contemporary
of Knight who learned of the work of Koelreuter some time
after he had started his experiments. He opposed the idea that
species
crosses were necessarily sterile.
Studies made by John Goss are considered of much interest as
they showed results similar to those obtained later by Mendel.
In 1820 flowers of Blue Prussian pea, which has bluish seeds,
were pollinated with pollen of Dwarf Spanish. Three seeds were
obtained which were yellowish- white like the male parent.
Plants grown from the seeds produced some pods with all blue,
some with all white, and some with both blue and white seeds in
the same pods. When planted, the blue seeds bred true while
the white seeds gave some segregates. No law, however, was
developed.
Other Workers of this Period. At about this same period
Sargeret, in France, was making
studies with Cucurbitacece
crosses. He observed the fact of dominance as the following
crosses show.
MUSKMELON (FEMALE) CANTALOUPE (MALE) FIRST GENERATION
1. Flesh, white Flesh, yellow Flesh, yellow
2. Seeds, white Seeds, yellow Seeds, white
3. Skin, smooth Skin, netted Skin, netted
4. Ribs, slightly evident Ribs, strongly Ribs, rather
pronounced
pronounced
5. Flavor, sugary and Flavor, sweet Flavor, acid
very acid at same
time
He notes (Roberts, 1919) that:
"The characters were not blended or intermediate at all,
clearly and distinctly those of the one or the other parent."
but were
Naudin made quite careful studies and attempted to summarize,
his results. He so nearly approached the law later laid
down by Mendel that some workers have spoken of it as the
Naudin-Mendel law. He thought that if
hybrids were selffertilized
they would return more or less rapidly to the parental
types.
Similar results were obtained if the hybrid was pollinated