446 Journal of Agricultural Research voi. \i. no. 12 



borne on one side of the plant instead of alternately on opposite sides of 

 the culm (PI. LVI, fig. i). Like the angle of the tassel, this character 

 is not universally present in the Waxy Chinese plant, but, on the other 

 hand, no tendency of this kind has ever been observed in the Esperanza 

 variety. 



When one-sided plants occur in the hybrid generations, it is therefore 

 reasonable to assume that the character was derived from the Chinese 

 parent. Measurements of these characters in the hybrid plants were 

 made by recording the number of monostichous or single-ranked leaves, 



A recapitulation of the more definitely contrasting characters of the 

 two parent varieties is here presented in parallel columns : 



Esperanza variety 



Homy endosperm. 



Branching space short. 



Tassel erect. 



Spikelets in clusters. 



Glumes long. 



Leaf sheaths with tuberculate hairs. 



Upper leaf blades horizontal. 



Upper leaf blades distichous. 



Waxy Chinese variety 



Waxy endosperm. 



Branching space long. 



Tassel curved. 



Spikelets in pairs. 



Glumes short. 



Leaf sheaths without tuberculate hairs. 



Upper leaf blades erect. 



Upper leaf blades monostichous. 



If the characters of maize were subject to coherence, the second genera- 

 tion of a cross between two such diverse and long-established types as 

 Esperanza and Waxy Chinese would seem a most favorable opportunity 

 for its manifestation. 



In the whole series of second-generation plants there were none that 

 even approximately represented either parent variety ; nor did the plants 

 fall into recognizable groups. With respect to the individual characters, 

 the parental forms reappeared or were even intensified in some instances, 

 but an almost complete and chance reassortment of the characters seems 

 the rule. If the characters were completely independent, a reappearance 

 of the parental types could not, of course, be e;s:pected, for, treating the 

 characters as alternative and allowing for only 10 characters, a plant 

 possessing all the characters of either parent could not be expected oftener 

 than once in 10 billion plants. Although the characters themselves, 

 with few exceptions, were non-Mendelian in the sense that they were not 

 alternative, the results conformed to the Mendelian law of recombination. 

 Examples of the combination of characters from the two parent varieties 

 are shown in Plates LIX to LXIII. 



Endosperm texture was the only strictly alternative character noted. 

 The number of erect leaves and angle of tassel, while not alternative in 

 the sense of falling into definite groups without intermediates, do, how- 

 ever, approach a Mendelian form of inheritance. The distribution, 

 instead of approximating a normal frequency curve, was distinctly 

 bimodal with respect to these characters. A similar tendency is ap- 

 parent in the first-generation plants. In connection with this evidence 



