438 Agkioultukal Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



violent. On September 17, 1891, cross-pollinations were made 

 from sweet com, however, tlie variety sold as Extra Early Mar- 

 blehead sugar. But some less violent cross must be attempted, 

 and another male parent was chosen from the Japanese Striped 

 corn, which is a type grown for ornament and in which the ears 

 and kernels are smaU. This com is known in the trade as '' Zea 

 Japonica." The leaves are striped lengthwdse with broad lines 

 of white. The kernels are rounded and yellowish, and the ears 

 are four or five inches long. On September twenty-one pollen 

 from this Japanese corn was applied to the Zea canina, and 

 seventeen seeds resulted from this union. From the pollination 

 with the Marblehead sugar, how^ever, only three kemals were 

 procured, and all were small and weak, and it was doubtful if 

 they would grow. 



These seeds were saved with the greatest care and curiosity. 

 They were all sown under glass April 14, 1892. Fi'om the seven- 

 teen Canina X Japanese seeds, fourteen good plants grew, while 

 from the three Canina X Marblehead seeds, only one grew. All 

 the plants were set near each other in June in heavy clay loam. 

 A few plants of pure Zea canina were also set near by. .Ul 

 three lots grew well, but Canina X Japanese was mucli the 

 Marblehead plant x tallest and most vigorous. The one Canina 

 grew scarcely more than four feet tall. T\^■o suckers sprung 

 from the base of the plant, but there were no branches higher 

 up, and all the ears were small and single! The kernels, which 

 had been pollinated fi\)m the tassels on the same plant, were 

 indistinguishable from those of true Canina. The only effect of 

 this hybridization with the sweet com, therefore, was what might 

 have been expected from so violent a cross — a general weaken- 

 ing of the characters of the plant. 



The fourteen Canina X Japanese grew with great vigor, reach- 

 ing a height of eight and nine feet, and nearly all the stalks pro- 

 duced the branches of multiple oars. But the remarkable 

 feature of these plants was the shortening up of these side 

 branches from the length of two and three feet, attained in true 

 Canina, as shown on page 435, to a cluster or brac<i of four to 

 six ears, as shown on the next page. One plant which produced 



