PACHYTENE CHROMOSOME MORPHOLOGY 
AND ITS BEARING ON INTERSPECIFIC 
AND INTERGENERIC RELATIONSHIPS 
OF COIX* 
BY 
J. VENKATESWARLU', R.S.K. CoaGantr, 
AND PanuGant! N. Rao’ 
The genus Coix is a member of the tribe Maydeae 
(family Gramineae) which comprises seven genera. ‘Two 
of these, Zea and Tripsacum, are native to the New 
World, while the rest, Coix, Chionachne, Trilobachne, 
Sclerachne and Polytoca, are native to southeast Asia 
(Mangelsdorf and Reeves, 1939). The Maydeae is a taxo- 
nomic rather than a natural assemblage of genera (Cha- 
ganti, 1965), with monoecism as the feature in common to 
both the New World and Asiatic members. However, 
from time to time, the existence of possible phylogenetic 
relationships between the two geographically separated 
groups has been postulated (Anderson, 1945; W.C. 
Galinat, personal communication). 
Coix is the largest of the five maydeaceous genera na- 
tive to Asia. Its systematics is confusing (Venkateswarlu 
* Investigation supported by a grant from the Indian Council of 
Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 
‘Department of Botany, Andhra University, Waltair, Andhra 
Pradesh, India. 
*The New York Blood Center, 310East 67th Street, New York, 
N.Y. 10021. 
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