The authors had collected some cruciferous oil plants with high linolenic acid content in Sichuan Province. The result of fatty acid analysis had shown that Malcolmia africrma (L.) R. Br. and Arabis hirsuta (L.) Scop, have a higher linolenic acid content of 57.37% and 51.38% respectively . Thus they are worthy for further study. Descurainia sophia (L.) Webb. ex Prantl, especially that collected from Hongyuan County, has a high seed oil content of 44.17% , a linolenic acid content of 40.9 % and a high seed yield of 1 264.5 kg/hm2 . It is suggested that this oil plant species can be introduced for industrial utilization.
The intergeneric hybridization between Brassica napus L. cv. oro and Matthiola incana (L.) R. Br. was carried out to study the phytogenetic peculiarities of the hybrid plants. In order to improve the oil quality of rape seed, ovaries of B. napus pollinated with pollen of M. incana, were cut off and inoculated onto MS media supplemented with various plant hormones at the 7th day after pollination. Two mature embryos were obtained from 750 pollinated ovaries cultured in vitro. The percentage of seed set was 0.26%. The mature embryos were transferred onto the MS media supplemented with 2.0 mg/L 6-BA + 0.1 mg/L NAA, and a compound bud was produced later. The compound bud was then cut into a number of single buds, which were transferred onto fresh media. Twenty-two plantlets in vitro were developed from the above single buds. The hybrid plants (F-1) were basically intermediate between the two parents in many,characters with a few showing hybrid vigor. The fertility of hybrid plants (F-1) was poor. Cytological studies revealed that the hybrid plants (F-1) were mixoploid. in nature. The chromosome number of many somatic cells was 2n = 26, which was the sum of the chromosome number of the two parents. The chromosome number of other somatic cells was 2n = 38, similar to that of B. napus. The hybrid offspring (F-2) from the selfed hybrid plants (F-1) showed polymorphism. Among the hybrid offspring (F-2) some were nearly matroclinous and fertile, similar to B. napus. some others were intermediate between the two parents and less fertile, and a few were poorly developed and nearly infertile. From the hybrid offspring a few plants with improved seed-oil quality were obtained.
