68 The Journal 
the genetic symbol te, the dominant 
normal allelomorph of which is Te. 
DESCRIPTION OF TASSEL-SEED AND 
TASSEL-EAR TYPES 
The peculiarities of tassel seed and 
tassel ear are best appreciated by an 
examination of the illustrations accom- 
paying this account. In Fig. 9 are 
shown two nearly entire plants of the 
same pedigree culture at the time the 
terminal inflorescence is pushing out of 
the upper sheaths. At this stage, ear 
shoots have not appeared above the 
sheaths in either the normal or the 
tassel-seed plant. A latter stage in the 
growth of such plants is seen in Fig. 10. 
The tassels, both staminate (normal) 
and pistillate (tassel seed), appear at 
about the same time, before the plants 
have completed their height growth 
and before ear shoots have appeared 
trom the sheaths. By the time the 
plants have reached their full height 
and when the pollen has been largely 
shed from normal plants (Fig. 10), the 
silks of the terminal inflorescence of 
the tassel-seed plants are usually with- 
ering on account of having been pol- 
linated. True ear shoots have by this 
time appeared in the usual position, not 
only on the normal but also on the 
tassel-seed plants. Since the terminal 
silks of tassel-seed plants appear and 
are receptive before pollen is shed from 
normal plants of the same stage of de- 
velopment, they are pollinated at once 
from earlier maturing plants, in which 
case they soon wither, or if no early 
normal plants are near, the silks remain 
fresh and continue to grow until pollen 
is shed by the normal plants of their 
own stage of growth. The terminal 
silks of such plants are usually pol- 
linated before the silks of the true ears 
of the same plants have appeared. The 
latter are ultimately pollinated, how- 
ever, and soon wither, and seeds begin 
to develop. Whether or not the true 
ears continue to develop seems to 
depend upon how fully the tassel silks 
have been pollinated. When the tassels 
set a full crop of seed the true ears 
of Heredity 
usually fail to develop far and ripen no 
seed, but when, from one cause or 
another, little or no seed forms in the 
tassels, the true ears develop normally. 
Full-grown tassel-seed plants are 
nearly as tall as normal plants of the 
same cultures (Fig. 10) and have about 
the same number of leaves. ‘Tassel- 
ear plants, on the contrary,.are much 
shorter than their normal sibs. As 
seen in Fig. 11, tassel-ear plants have 
nearly as many leaves as  normai 
plants, but have considerably shorter 
internodes. The terminal silks of 
tassel-ear plants appear at about the 
same stage of plant growth as do those 
of tassel-seed plants. True ears also 
appear in many cases, but much less 
frequently than with tassel-seed plants. 
If the tassel silks are removed at an 
early stage, true ears usually develop 
normally, except that they are often 
tardy in appearing. On the whole, 
tassel-ear plants are considerably 
weaker than tassel-seed plants. 
The differences between tassel seed 
and tassel ear with respect to the form 
of the terminal pistillate inflorescence 
are well shown in Figs. 12 to 16. In 
tassel seed the inflorescence is loose like 
that of most tassels, the individual 
spikelets being more or less separated. 
The tassels of normal plants of different 
strains differ much in the density of 
their spikes. It is not surprising, there- 
fore, to find variations in the density 
of tassel-seed inflorescence in somewhat 
unrelated cultures, such as the second 
and later generations from crosses 
with diverse sorts of normal plants. 
Just such diversities are seen in Figs. 
12 and 15. In some cases the tassel- 
seed inflorescence is fairly dense (Fig. 
15), though even here there is little re- 
semblance to an ordinary ear. Some are 
very loose (Fig. 12), and others in- 
termediate. In rare cases (Fig 12) 
staminate flowers develop with the pis- 
tillate ones throughout the greater part 
of the tassel. Whether or not these 
staminate flowers are functional has not 
been determined. The glumes and 
palae of such flowers are long, narrow, 
