204 Albinism in Maize 



approximating closely the monohybrid ratio. Fifteen of the green 

 plants and five striped ones were self-pollinated. Ordinarily one would 

 expect the striped segregates to breed true, and of the green plants 

 one-third should breed true green, while two-thirds should segregate 

 into green plants and striped plants in the ratio three green : one 

 striped. Of the fifteen progenies grown from self-pollinated ears of 

 the green F.^ plants five consisted only of green plants ; nine consisted 

 of both green plants and striped plants, the total numbers being 

 262 green and 86 striped ; and one progeny consisted wholly of striped 

 plants. The fact that one progeny consisted of striped plants can 

 easily be accounted for, because in the original cross one of the parents 

 was a very dark-purple plant and in the F.^ there were a number of 

 purple plants appearing. It was noted during the summer of 1912 

 that it was often difficult to distinguish the striping on some of the 

 purple plants, and in occasional cases it might have been overlooked. 

 The records show that the individual which gave a progeny of striped 

 plants was a dark-purple plant, and consequently it may have been 

 faintly striped, but the fact was overlooked when notes on plant colour 

 were taken. Of the five progenies grown from the five self-pollinated 

 striped segregates four bred true to the striped condition, there being 

 288 plants in all four families. But one progeny consisted of 34 striped 

 plants and eight green ones. This condition appears somewhat similar 

 to the results obtained by Baur(4) and Correns(6) in crosses between 

 variegated and green plants, for they reported that not all of the 

 variegated segregates bred true. Emerson(ll) reports results of a 

 comparable nature in the case of variegation in pericarp colour of maize 

 grains. As regards plant colour, there is the possibility that the green 

 individuals were the result of accidental cross-pollination of the varie- 

 gated plants with green plants. 



The second-generation family descending from those grains which 

 in the original cross had dark aleurone consisted of 87 green plants and 

 10 striped ones. Thirteen gi-een plants and five striped ones were 

 self-pollinated. The results from these pollinations are shown in 

 Table IV. 



It is seen that too large a percentage of the green plants bred true 

 green for this to be interpreted as a simple case of inheritance. Also, 

 only one of the striped plants bred true to the striped condition, and 

 the fact that four of the striped plants threw some green individuals 

 indicates that the green plants probably were not due to accidental 

 cross-pollination. The peculiar behaviour in this case is not understood 



