24 



Journal of Agricultural Research 



Vol. XIX, No. I 



In this connection it should be recalled that in the Fj plants the alicoles 

 of the pistillate inflorescence all bore two spikelets. 



•52^ 



SO 





I- 



^5^ 



DOUBLE FEMALE ALICOLES 



Double female alicoles may be considered alle- 

 lomorphic to single alicoles, but owing to the 

 occurrence of plants with small percentages of 

 double male and mixed alicoles the percentages 

 are not exact reciprocals. There is, however, the 

 same bimodality (fig. 19), the numbers indicating 

 the dominant nature of this character. 



alicolE index 





'X 



SO 



Fig. 18. — Single female ali- 

 coles: frequency distri- 

 bution of plants in Fs. 

 Class value, lo per cent. 



With the idea that mixed and male alicoles were 

 in the nature of abnormalities, the number of sin- 

 gle female alicoles was expressed as a percentage 

 of the combined single and double female alicoles. 

 There were 36 plants with no single female ali- 

 coles and 19 with no double female alicoles. 



If the individuals are separated into two groups 

 at the low point in the bimodal curve, which is 

 50 per cent, the numbers are 

 83 below this point and 37 

 above (fig. 20). 



The tendency for either 

 the single alicoles of teosinte 

 or the double alicoles of maize to predominate is 

 the nearest approach to Mendelian behavior among 

 the characters recorded. 



The measurements of the alicole group form such 

 a closely related series that their correlations may 

 be discussed together. Significant coherences are 

 shown with both characters of the male branch 

 group and with number of alicoles, rows in the 

 central spike, and number of suckers. The only 

 significant disherence is between single female ali- 

 coles and primary branches. 



Some of the coherences may be of a physiologi- 

 cal nature, but the almost complete absence of any 

 evidence of disherence with this group of charac- 

 ters which most nearly approaches an alternative method of inheritance 

 should perhaps be noted. 



I 



Fig. 19. — Double female ali- 

 coles: frequency distribu- 

 tion of plants in F2. class 

 value, 10 percent. 



