INHERITANCE IN SUGAR CANE. 35 



Amono- these seedlings two uou-glaiieous wine-colored canes oc- 

 curred; two were greenish-yellow; two wei-e reddish-green and 

 glaucous; three were light i-eddish-green and glaucous: one had 

 distinctly tumid joints. 



All seedlings produced from D-llT seed have shown marked re- 

 semblance to this variety in color and in liahit of growth, but they 

 have shown more variation in the type of the internode and the bud. 

 Abnormalities such as dwarfed canes, extremely short internodes, 

 wedge-shaped internodes, and buds of unusual form have been com- 

 mon. In using the term abnormalit.v the writer includes only stools 

 distinctly different from the varieties cultivated for commercial pur- 

 poses, and especially those unfit for commercial cultivation. 



Approximately nine hundred D-llT seedlings were grown to ma- 

 turity in 1916-17. In color they were almost uniforndy like the 

 parent variety. No dark-colored canes whatever were found among 

 them. One seedling only out of this number was a slightly different 

 color, being green instead of yellowish-green. ^ The most marked va- 

 riations were in length of stalk and length o/ internode. Some of 

 the stools were reclining in habit. Init most of them were as erect - 

 growing as the parent variety. 



In all, twenty-four abnormal stools were found among these seed- 

 lings.^ Nine of them were classified as "'dwarfs.'" They had stalks 

 not over three feet long and almost uniform in length ; internodes 

 one-half to one inch long; usually semi-prominent buds; erect-grow- 

 ing leaves; and .often few or many shoots growing from the base of 

 the stool. Some of the abnormal cepas were similar to the dwarfs, 

 but had one or more long stalks. 



Other unusual characters in these abnormal canes were stalks 

 with all or many of the buds sprouted, and stalks with many ad- 

 ventitious roots. Still other unusual characters, especially among the 

 dwarfs, were the presence of dead stalks in the stools and a tendency 

 for the entire stool to have withered oi- weak toi)S. Some stools also 

 had stalks with wedge-shaped internodes, each averaging about an 

 inch long on one side of the stalk, and narrowed down to sometimes 

 practically nothing on the opposite side. It is planned to grow sonu' 

 of these variations to see whether the abnormal characters are in- 

 herited. 



' It might be assumed that tlic unusunl types whicli are found anion}? eane seedlings 

 are due to characters acquired by intercrossing of various ty))es of cane at an early stage 

 in the development of the species, and that these characters have been hidden by reason of the 

 dominance of others, since cane has l)een propaijated by sexual means for an unknown period 

 of time. But the question also presents itstlf whether sucli abnormalities are not of the 

 character of mutations, and whether some of the other variations in cane seedlings may not 

 also lielong to the same class. 



