24 



The above are the onl}" hand-pollinated ears on which the writer 

 has obtained the effect of dent pollen on a sweet corn race, l)ut several 

 very convincing instances have come under his observation. The 

 case referred to above, under experiments 31a and 31b, of a patch of 

 sweet corn grown by J. C. Bradt, of Marcellus, Mich., is verj^ 

 interesting and instructive. Here a patch of sweet corn of about 

 an acre in extent produced from seed which had been grown for sev- 

 eral years in an isolated locality and known to be pure, was phmted 

 in th corner of a large field of a yellow dent race. An examination 

 of the sweet corn grown under these conditions and fertilized naturally 

 showed a large numl)er of mixed ears. In the rows which were 

 inmiediatcdy adjoining the rows of dent corn almost e^'ery ear con- 

 tained many kernels which were smooth and yellowish like the dent 

 corn, an effect doubtless due to xenia. ' (PI. II, figs. 1^-18, and PI. 

 IV, fig. 2.) In some instances the kernels showing xenia largely pre- 

 dominated so that a particular plant of sweet corn would be producing 

 an ear composed largely of yellow dent kernels. In this instance, 

 furthermore, the writer was able to notice the distance to which the 

 pollen was carried, although this feature is of course governed by the 

 prevailing winds, etc. Passing away from the dent corn farther and 

 farther into the patch of sweet corn the number of ears showing xenia 

 greatly diminished, until on the opposite side of the small patch of 

 sweet corn, only about 200 feet from the dent corn, very few ears 

 could be found showing kernels crossed with dent pollen. 



The article by Professor De Vries above referred to, calling atten- 

 tion to double fecundation as being a probable explanation of xenia, 

 is based on an experiment where sweet corn was crossed with pollen 

 of a dent race and showed xenia the same as in the cases described 

 here. In Kellerman and Swingle's' experiments two ears of Corj^ 

 Sweet, a reddish sort, were crossed with Plxtra Early Adams Table, a 

 white dent. One of the resulting ears clearly showed xenia in having 

 smooth kernels mixed with the wrinkled ones, while the other, which 

 matured but few kernels, gave no visible indication of having been 

 crossed. 



DENT CORN CROSSED WITH DENT CORN. 



Experiment ^«, Learning Yellow 9 X ILlckory King $ . — The plants 

 were grown and crossed at Washington in 1898. A small ear de- 

 veloped which matured only forty -six kernels, none of which showed 

 any indication of xenia, being like the seed planted so far as could be 

 o1)served. 



These forty -six kernels were planted at Lincoln, Ne])r., in the sum- 

 mer of 1890, and almost all of the plants grown from them proved to 

 be true hybrids about intermediate between the two parents. Ears 



^Kellerman and Swintrle, 1. r., \i 33.'i. 



