130 STUDIES IN INDIAN SUGARCANE SEEDLINGS 



A vei-y large number of crosses were attempted between indigenous canes 

 and thick exotic ones but, on the whole, with very poor results. Pollen Nvas 

 freely sent to Bangalore, where an officer was deputed for three months, to get 

 if possible crosses by Saretha and Chin on to Java and B 208, while Vellai was 

 crossed, as in the previous year, on the station at Coimbatore. Owing to the 

 poor development of the stamens in most indigenous canes, pollen was brought 

 from the good varieties at Bangalore and dusted on Sarelha, Chin, Pansahi, 

 Cheni and Chynia. But, taking the seedlings obtained after these operations 

 as a whole, there was very little evidence, at planting out, of the influence of 

 the male parent. This strengthens the imj)ression noted below that, if 

 fertile pollen is present in any inflorescence, it is largely prepotent over any 

 foreign j)ollen introduced and that, in any general collection of arrows in the 

 field, most of the seedlings are selfed, in spite of other v;).rieties flowering at 

 the same time in the vicinity. 



