, 1890-09-24

every by Professor Harrison and Mr..
Bowel of seeding canes possesses worlds
vide interest, aud these inveSti gators lie.
serve great credit for what they have done.
The results OF ,beir discovery have been
Icenly followed on this side, anil confirm
Ell Ivy ~i..dependt mt i"ves igation." These
words appeared IN The Colonies md INDIA
of June IL, ahd are now incorporated IN
the recently .issued "Trocecdings" T. IN"
Royal Cu'o.iHl Institute, vol. xxi, y. Dos.
] believe have sufficiently shown that,
so far from ignoring Ntssrs. Harrison and
Roveli in this m.toer, lave done all that
was possible to make k"own their invest.
CATIONS aud to dlaw public attention co
Them. II Inaccurate reports of my paper
have been circulated IN the press, there
are clearly no grounds, as I pave shown
above, for connecting such reports with
ANYTHING in that paper. Whp1 this is
published, it will be Seen exactly what l
have said, and I shall he. prepared TO az
cept full responsibility for II. In the mean
time the publication of this letter will, it
ia hoped, reassure MesSrs. Harrison aud
BovpIl that their claims have not been
overlooked.
While saving this / may, however, point
ont that the weak point in their lmVeSllga'
tions was the absence Of any definite state
ment in regard to the finding of the actual
seed in the panicle Of the sugar cane there
was also wanting a careful and acc "ate
description Of it suited TO the requirements
1T botanical science. The only attempt at
a description published by NesSrs. uarTi-
son and Bowel is contained in their report
for the year 1889, y. 40. This report WAS
received in this country on March 81 last,
and 1t ia to be acccpte I rs their latest de-
,ivery ON the subject. The description OF
the seed given in this report fs rs follows;
--"The fertile seeds %enclos' I in the gIumeA
are loGg and narrow, being from 3 to I
m~illi.netres in length, and firp 10 10 ~
miIlimptres in breadth, and 'trAihatt Ia
beard from 6 to 8 miilimet"ps long, 1t
anyone will take the trouble to draw Il
figure according to the particulars %n"
measurements here given, it will be seen
that this is a description, not OF tile seeds,
bnt of the pistil of the flower. The mea-
9 rements, so far as my observations go,
will apply to neither the pistil nor the
ICED. The so-catled beard (given as twice
tie length of the seed) is evidently the
plumosc stigma, which, however. does not
remain pttached 10 the mature seed. II
McSsrs. Harrison and BOvel's claims de-
pended alone on this description, L am
afraid there is no scientific man who would
accept il as at II adequate tOprove the ex'
istence of ripe seeds in the sugar cane. In
tact, az good, if not u better, idea OF the fluit
Of the sugar cane was given by DescOurtliz
nearly 80 years ago, bat this was felt IT, I've
unite insufficient to settle the + int. There
are, Of course, collateral circumstances III
regard 10 the Barbados experiments, but
taking the description as j. Stands IT would
throw grave doubt on the fact whether
Nessrs. Harrison and BOvell had ever OBJ
served the actual seed, before termination
in the elumes of the sugar cane. 1t would
probably be SAID that what they had seen
was only the ovary and the plumose Stig'
ma. These, it is well known, exist IN
nearly every one of The thousands of flow.
era produced by the sugar cane. On the
other hand, the ripe seed is found only
in one out of every 500 spikeletS, even
In those varieties supposed to be most
fruitful.
notice Professor Harrison complains
that o letter he wrote me IN 1893 address
ed oSacially) was published in the Ke'c
Kwlletin. Professor Harrison is evidently
very hard to please. This letter. and what
I wrote in 1883, first drew pnblic attention
in this country TO the Importance OF the
work in which he and Mr.. BOVeIl were en-
ragpd. Further, 1 have good reason to
believe, the prominence given in the hec
Rwlletis to this work did more than Pro-
fpssor Harrison is evidently disposed to
oamit en- attaining for him promotion to