92 



The Plant World. 



TABLE I. 



SHOWING INHERITANCE OF FASCIATION OF THE EARS 

 OF ZEA MAYS EVERTA. 



Kvidently plants and not ears must be taken into considera- 

 tion. For while in the one case(No.ll310)the plants with all 

 ears fasciated were in the majority (87.50% of all plants showing 

 fasciated ears), in the case of No. 11510 the opposite occurred, 

 i. e., most of the plants which showed fasciated ears had both 

 fasciated and non-fasciated female inflorescences (62% of all 

 plants showing fasciated ears), while only 38' ^ showed all ears 

 fasciated. 



One frequently meets with fasciated ears in cornfields, and 

 these are readily obtainable, more particularly of Zea Mays 

 everta. Hence, when the opportunity offered in connection with 

 some other experiments, an attempt was made to determine the 

 degree of inheritance of fasciation in corn. One normal ear of 

 a yellow variety (No. 11410), one fasciated ear of the same yel- 

 low variety (No. 11510) and one fasciated ear of a red variety 

 of Zea Mays everta (No. 11310) were selected for seed, the ears 

 being obtained commercially. The degree to which these ears 

 were fasciated may be judged from fig. 1 , in which the ear on the 

 left was the parent of those under No. 11510. 



Of the normal yellow popcorn (No. 11410) were obtained 

 seventeen plants. No fasciated ears appeared, unless we except 

 a single underdeveloped component of a compound ear, referred 



♦This figure is obtained from a plant which bore two ears, one of which, well developed, 

 was not fasciated. The second ear was compound, consisting of a main ear and two 



lesser, auxiliary ears, one of which was not ripe at the time of collection and had a 

 total length of about 4 cm. It was somewhat flattened. This flattening we interpret 

 as fasciation, though for the sake of our arguipent it would obviously have been to our 

 advantage not to do so. 



