THE INHERITANCE OF CHARACTERS IN RICE, I 



BY 



F. R. PARNELL, B.A., Ag. Dip. (Cantab.), 

 Government Economic Botanist, Madras, 



G. N. RANGASWAMI AYYANGAR, B.A., 



AND 



K. RAMIAH, L. Ag., 

 Assistants in Economic Botany. 



[Received for publication on February 18, 1917.] 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



is a striking feature of cultivated rice. It would be possible to collect many 

 thousands of differently named varieties cultivated in India. Many of these 

 are probably identical, though bearing different names, whereas in many cases 

 the same name is applied to several different varieties. It is probable that 

 the genetically distinct varieties would number several thousands. 



The characters in which the varieties differ from each other are extremely 

 varied. On the one hand are morphological characters affecting the colour, 

 size, shape, etc., of various parts of the plant ; on the other hand are such 

 physiological characters as determine water-requirement, length of duration, 

 vigour, etc. The variations shown in some of these characters are described 

 by several authors who have proposed systems of classification of rice. The 

 most recent work of this nature is by Graham^ in India and Kikkawa2 in Japan. 



The present paper deals with the method of inheritance of some of the 

 simpler characters. The material from which the results were obtained 



1 Graiiam, R. J. D., Mem. Dept. of Agr. in India, Bot. Series, vol. VI, no. 7. 



2 Kikkawa, S., Journal of the College of Agr., Imperial University, Tokio, III, 2. 





The existence of an extraordinarily large number of well marked varieties 9*^TAXit 



UA%^ 



