A MULTIFLOROUS VARIATION IN 

 BURT OATS 



F. A. CoFFMAN and K. S. Quisenberry^ 

 U. S. Department of AgricnUiirc. 



A STUDY of variation in Rnrt 

 oats" has been conducted during 

 the past several years at the 

 Akron Field Station of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture at 

 Akron, Colo., and at the Kansas Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, Manhat- 

 tan, Kans. In this study, a plant ap- 

 peared in a strain of Burt. C. L No. 

 1921,' grown at Akron in 1920, which 

 showed the multiflorous spikelet cor- 

 related with the naked (hull-less) con- 

 dition characteristic of Avena nuda. 

 The outer glumes of the spikelets were 

 long, resembling those of Avena nuda. 

 The spikelets were from two to six 

 flowered, with elongated rachillas, 

 causing the florets to extend beyond 

 the outer glumes. 



The lemma and palea were of a dark 

 brown color and the caryopsis [kernel] 

 was larger than is common with the 

 naked oats (Fig. 17). Approximately 

 forty per cent of the seeds thrashed 

 free from the flowering glumes. The per- 

 centage of naked seeds in the spikelet 

 did not appear to vary with the posi- 

 tion of the spikelet on the panicle. 

 The panicle of the variation shown 

 in comparison with ordinary hulled and 

 naked oats in Figure 21 presented, in 

 part, the appearance of a hulled X hull- 



less first generation hybrid as descril^ed 

 by Norton (6),' Zinn and Surface (8), 

 Gaines (2), Caporn (i), and Love 

 and McRostie (4). Norton observed 

 one plant resulting from the cross, Eu- 

 ropean Hull-less X Carton's Tartar 

 King, which he states "seems to have 

 become fixed in the intermediate type. 

 In this example we have an extremely 

 rare case of the fixation of a heterozy- 

 gote or hybrid state." Farther than 

 this statement no information regarding 

 this peculiar form seems to have been 

 published. Hulled and naked kernels 

 from panicles bearing naked seeds, 

 hulled seeds from normal panicles and 

 ordinary naked kernels are shown in 

 Figures 19 and 20. 



The particular strain of Burt oats 

 in which this variation appeared 

 originated at the Iowa Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. It 

 was introduced into the agronomic 

 nursery at the Kansas Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kans., 

 in 1918. So far as the history at the 

 Kansas station is known, this selection 

 had never been grown adjacent to or 

 even near any Avena nuda types. 



The kernel from which the plant 

 under discussion was grown was de- 

 scribed as being of the sativa type of 



^ This study has been conducted by F. A. Cofifman, assistant agronomist. Office of 

 Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, located 

 at the Akron Field Station, Akron, Colo., by K. S. Quisenhcrrv, working both at the 

 Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kans., and the West Virginia Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, Morgantown, W. Va. The writers are indebted to Prof. 

 John H. Parker, in charge of crop improvement at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, and to C. W. Warburton, in charge of cereal agronomy experiments in the Office 

 of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, for 

 many helpful suggestions and criticisms in the preparation of this paper. 



^The study of variation in Burt oats has been conducted as a cooperative problem 

 at the Akron Field Station, Akron, Colo., and the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 Manhattan, Kans. 



^ Cereal Investigations accession number. 



* Figures in parenthesis refer to Literature Cited, at end of article. 



185 



