From A. W. Rimpau   10 December 1877

Dear Sir,

I take the liberty, to send you the enclosed notice on my observations respecting the self-sterility of Secale cereale, conjectured already in my essay “die Züchtung neuer Getreide-Varietäten”, which I sent you last January.¹

My supposition with regard to the perfect self-sterility of Beta vulgaris has not been corroborated. A single plant, cultivated in a flower-pot within a room produced a few seeds; the plants, cultivated together in another room, which were repeatedly dusted over one another, also produced only a few seeds. The fertility, therefore, seems to be injured by the cultivation within a room.²

Very interesting forms I got from my cross-bred wheat in the second generation. The first produce of the cross of two different varieties was allways uniform, sometimes intermediate, sometimes very similar to one of the parents. In the second generation, on the contrary, I got a great many intermediate forms, plants quite similar to the parent forms and some ears not intermediate, but quite different from both parent-forms. For instance I got from a cross of the bearded Rivett-wheat³ (♀) with kidney-coloured chaff, and a german brown-chaffed not bearded variety (♂) in the second generation some perfectly white-chaffed bearded and not bearded ears.

I am, Sir | Yours most respectfully | W. Rimpau.