stage after emergence has begun, is characteristic of many 
South American and some Mexican varieties. It is surely 
of little significance in the Assamese varieties which are 
obviously rather highly inbred, if the statements of the 
authors are correct regarding their uniformity and the 
fact that they are sometimes grown as single plants 
among other cereals. Lack of vigor is characteristic of 
many American inbred strains. 
We have no data on internode pattern. 
6. We have no observations on upright tassel branches 
and short silks. 
7. The spathe-like cluster of leaves partly enclosing 
the tassel is not uncommon in Colombian varieties. 
8. The grayish bloom which shows some resemblance 
to the bloom characteristic of sorghum (and many other 
grasses) occurs in our collection only on varieties from 
Colombia. 
9. Perhaps the most important ‘‘unusual’’ character- 
istic of the Assamese maize is the waxy endosperm which 
occurs in several varieties. It was the discovery of this 
character in Chinese maize which led Collins (1909) to 
reopen the question of a pre-Columbian distribution of 
maize in Asia. 
Waxy endosperm is a simple Mendelian character in 
maize which affects the chemical composition. The starch 
of waxy maize is composed exclusively of amylopectin, 
while that of non-waxy varieties contains both amylose 
and amylopectin. Waxy varieties of maize are unknown 
in pure form in America, but the waxy character itself 
has been discovered in non-waxy varieties: in a New 
England flint corn by Mangelsdorf (1924) and ina South 
American variety by Breggar (1928). Bear (1944) has 
found that waxy endosperm is not an uncommon mutant 
in Corn-Belt dent corn varieties. He found three sepa- 
rate mutations in three consecutive years in a total pop- 
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