218 STUDIES IN THE POLLINATION ON INDIAN CROPS 



the floral arrangements and also tlie moist atmospheric conditions which obtain 

 in the jute tracts during the flowering time, self-pollination as a general rule is 

 to be expected. The flowers set seed freely under nets and the seeds so 

 produced germinate and develop normally. 



Cross-fertilization. As a check on these observations, the seed of 46 

 single plants of various types of jute were collected in the autumn of 1910 and 

 were sown separately during 1911 at Pusa. Thirty-eight of these cultures were 

 uniform in all respects while eight showed the presence of heterozygotes. In 

 one culture of 64: individuals, eleven plants with green stems and 53 plants 

 with reddish stems occurred. In another culture in which all the plants had 

 red stems, both light reds and dark reds occurred. In six other cultures plants 

 with red and others with green petioles occurred. 



Improvement. The prevalence of self-pollination and the comparative 

 ease with which heterozygotes can be detected and removed before flowering 

 takes place, render improvement by form-separation an easy matter. The 

 distribution of improved tj^es of seed presents no difiiculties provided 

 the bulk of seed is large enough for the systematic replacement of the 

 country crop. 



2. Long podded Jute.^ 



The cultivation of CorcJiorus olitorius L. for fibre is restricted to one 

 portion of Bengal and is of importance only en high lying sandy loams in the 

 Districts of Faridpur, Nadia, Hugli and Pabna. It is inferior as a source of 

 jute and is hardly ever grown under the inundation indispensable to 

 C. cajjsularis L. This species is much more branched than the forms of round 

 podded jute and its fruits are long beaked pods in which the seeds are 

 separated by transverse dissepiments. In other respects it greatly resembles 

 C. capsular is. 



Flowering. The small inconspicuous flowers are borne as simple cymes 

 both on the main stem and on the side branches and occur two or three together 

 with very short pedicels on a common short peduncle which arises on the 

 stem opposite a foliage leaf. The lowest flower buds open first and flowering 

 proceeds as the stem elongates, theie being not more than two or three flowers 

 open on each branch at the same time. The earliest formed flowers rapidly 

 produce pods so that a single plant of this species carries ripe fruits below, 

 while the upper portion of the stem is still groA\-ing in length and producing 



1 Lie Zuchtung der landw. KuUurpflanzen , Bd, V, 1912, s. 150. 



