4:40 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



mucro in memory of tkeir Canina parentage. The ears are twice 

 lai'ger tlian those of the Canina, from which they came. Two 

 plants of the foui-teen had distinctly striped foliage, like the 

 Japanese corn- 



The plants of true Canina which grew near by were less 

 branched than the Canina X Japanese, and while most of the 

 ears were multiple, some were single. This corn was also 

 attacked by smut. The behavior of these plants indicate either 

 that Canina is variable or that it tends to lose it charactei-s under 

 cultivation. I am inclined to adopt the latter explanation, espe- 

 cially as another lot of Canina grown in the field alongside a 

 plantation of sweet corn showed similar degeueration to single 

 ears. This latter plantation stood beside the Cory sweet corn. 

 Among this Canina only one plant matured, and that bore short 

 ear-clusters, much like those shown on page 439, and the kernels 

 were large and rounded, showing that it had been crossed with 

 something the year before, probably an accidental mixture ^vjth 

 Japanese, next which some of our Canina grew in 1891. The 

 remaining Canina plants were still growing s^igorously when frost 

 came October first, and some of them made the loug arm-Lke 

 branches, but several of them produced few and nearly simple 

 ears. All these Canina plants were fioin seeds put into ilxe 

 ground June fifteenth, for the pui-pose of K.'stiug Iheir ability 

 to ripen in one ordinary season. Now, the Cory corn alongside 

 this Canina and which was grown from pure seed, seemed to 

 show the effects of the Canina. There were many " rogue " 

 kernels on the ears, being smooth and whitish and suggest! \e 

 cf Canina infiuence. It is known that maize often shows an 

 immediate effect of poUen. No other corn grew withia eighty 

 rods of this plantation. 



Our observations seem to show that Zea canina is losing home 

 of its characteristic features under domestication, and that hybrid- 

 ization with the Japanese com promises inceresting and valuable 

 results. Hybridization with sweet corn so far promises little 

 in the origination of j^rofitable varieties, it is by no meaLs 

 certain that we can preserve the wonderfal prolificy,;y <'f the 

 Canica by Japanese hybrid, but the experiments wUl be contiuued. 



