FIELD CEOPS. 135 



over 600 heads that had been covered and in which no seeds were found. It 

 is noted that the second crop exceeded the first in the number of seeds per 

 head. 



The inheritance of recurring somatic variation in variegated ears of maize, 

 It. A. Emerson {Nchniska ^tu. Research Bui. .'/ {1914), PP- 5-35, ftys. 3; Amcr. 

 Nat., 48 {1914), No. 566, pp. 81-115, figs. 3).— In studying the inheritance of 

 variegation in a variety of maize, linown as " calico " corn, the author has 

 reached the following conclusions : 



" A somatic variation in maize is shown to be inherited in simple Mendelian 

 fashion. The variation has to do with the development of a dark red pigment 

 (or in one stocli a brown pigment) in the pericarp of the grains, often asso- 

 ciated with the development of an apparently similar pigment in the cob and 

 husks. 



" Plants in which this pigment has a variegated pattern may show any amount 

 of red pericarp, including wholly self-red ears, large or small patches of self- 

 rod gi'ains, scattered self-red grains, grains with a simple stripe of red covering 

 from perhaps nine-tenths to one-tenth of the surface, grains with several promi- 

 nent stripes and those with a single minute streak, ears with most of the grains 

 prominently striped and ears that are noncolored except for a single partly col- 

 ored grahi, and probably also plants with wholly self-red and others with 

 wholly colorless ears. 



" It is shown that the amount of pigment developed in the pericarp of varie- 

 gated seeds bears a definite relation to the development of color in the progeny 

 of such seeds. This relation is not such that seeds showing say nine-tenths, 

 one-half, or one-tenth red will produce or even tend to produce plants whose 

 ears as a whole or whose individual grains are, respectively, nine-tenths, one- 

 half, or one-tenth red. Experimental results indicate rather that the more color 

 in the pericarp of the seeds planted the more likely are they to produce plants 

 witli wholly self-red ears, and correspondingly, the less likely to yield plants 

 with variegated ears. 



" Self-red ears thus produced are shown to behave in inheritance just as If 

 they were hybrids between self-red and variegated races or between self-red 

 and non-red races, the behavior in any given case depending upon whether the 

 parent variegated ears were homozygous or heterozygous for variegated peri- 

 carp and whether they were self-pollinated or crossed with white. 



" It is suggested that these results may be interpreted by the assumption 

 that a genetic factor for variegation, V, is changed to a self-color factor, 8, in 

 a somatic cell. All pericarp cells directly descended from this modified cell 

 will, it is assumed, develoj) color, and of the gametes arising from such modi- 

 fied cells one-half will carry the 8 factor and one-half the V factor if only one 

 of the two V factors of the somatic cells is changed, or all such gametes will 

 carry 8 if both V factors are changed. The V factor is thought of as a sort of 

 temporary, recessive inhibitor that sooner or later permanently loses its 

 power to inhibit color development, becoming thereby an 8 factor. Or it may 

 be that the dominant factor, 8, is temporarily inactive, but sooner or later 

 becomes permanently active. Again, the 8 factor may repeatedly arise de novo. 

 The cause of any such change in factors is beyond intelligent discussion at 

 present. 



" The results of Correns with Mirabilis and of de Vries with Antirrhinum 

 are shown to be subject to the same analysis as that used to interpret the 

 results secured with maize." 



Maize variety trial, 1912, J. G. McMillan {Ayr. Gu.:'. .Y. iSf. Wales, 24 

 (1913), No. 12, pp. 1061, 1062).— In a test of 12 varieties of maize from the 

 United States the yields ranged from 30.75 to 58.64 bu. per acre. 



