III. GRAIN COLOUR AND CHAFF COLOUR. 

 Grain Colour. 



The inheritance of the red colour in wheat has been investigated 

 in great detail by previous observers. Biffen 1 found that red was 

 dominant over white and obtained the 3 : 1 ratio in the F 2 . Tscher- 

 mak 2 states that red, brown and violet grain colour prevail over 

 white and that after an intermediate Fj pure and impure splitting 

 in the F 2 takes place in the ratio 3 : 1 . Both Tschermak and Nils- 

 son-Ehle found that in certain crosses between red parents 

 white grained individuals were produced in the F 2 thereby showing 

 that the factors in each red parent were not the same. The most 

 detailed investigations on this character are those of Nilsson-Ehle" 

 at Svalof , who in addition to the simple splitting observed by Biffen 

 and others, found ratios of 15 : 1 and 63 : 1 in the Fo, which were 

 proved to be due to the presence of two and three factors respective- 

 ly in the red parent. Each of these factors was found to be capable 

 by itself of producing the red colour. These red parents with multiple 

 grain colour factors were selected from old country varieties and 

 were found to be exceedingly hardy and to be less liable to sprouting 

 in the ear than white forms. 



In our experiments on the inheritance of the red colour of the 

 grain we have found that the F x is always red, but the tone of colour 

 is intermediate and lighter than that of the red parent. In the F 2 

 the following ratios of red to white were obtained. 



1 Biffen, l.c. 



2 Tschermak, I.e. 



8 Nilsson-Ehle, l.c. 



