SELECTION IN PLANT BREEDING 



197 



Fig. 2. Inherited Abnormalities appearing in Maize. All pollen from these 

 plants and from their normal sister plants must be prevented from maturing. 



which bear their ears high and stalks which bear them low, stalks with 

 long and stalks with short ear shanks, stalks with different leaf mark- 

 ings and with notably different tendencies to produce suckers. Differ- 

 ences are everywhere present even in the ears, as is shown in the accom- 

 panying photograph ( Fig. 1 ) . A large number of these differences are 

 simply fluctuations produced by the environment and are not inherited. 

 The obscuration of heritable variations by the fluctuations and the mixed 

 condition of the natural types makes it a difficult task to isolate the most 

 productive types. Many variations of technique have been proposed 



