one having at least two components (Mangelsdorf and 
Galinat, 1964) and possibly three, one of which is iden- 
tical in its expression with a previously recognized mu- 
tation at this locus designated as ‘‘half-tunicate’’ because 
its effects are about half of those of tunicate (cf. Mangels- 
dorf and Reeves, 1959). We also discovered in the pop- 
corn variety, Baby Golden, a major modifying gene 
which we have called tunicate inhibitor and given the 
symbol, 7%. This gene has its locus on chromosome 6 
and is linked with the gene for endosperm color on that 
chromosome. Combinations of the several components 
of the 7'u-tu locus with and without the major modifying 
factor 7% produce a spectrum of phenotypes at one end 
of which all of the kernels are completely enclosed in 
glumes and at the other all of the kernels are completely 
exposed in their upper surfaces but are surrounded in 
their lower surfaces by glumes which are longer than 
those of modern varieties of corn. 
The earliest cobs from the Bat Cave 1950 collection 
are of this latter phenotype as the diagram in Fig. 1 
shows. They have relatively long floral bracts, the lem- 
mas and paleas surrounding the kernels but net com- 
pletely enclosing them. In the 1950 collection we have 
also found one fragment of a cob containing kernels 
which shows exactly this condition. This is illustrated in 
an enlarged photograph in Plate II, C, D, and in Fig. 2. 
The earliest cobs also have other characteristics of pod 
corn including the slender central stem, the rachis, and 
relatively long secondary stems, the pedicels or rachillae, 
upon which the kernels are borne. 
There has been some skepticism with respect to our 
conclusion that cobs of this type represent pod corn 
(Randolph, 1956; Weatherwax, 1956; Goodman, 1965). 
Since prehistoric kernels from such cobs, even when 
present, have long since lost their viability there is no 
[7] 
