136 STUDIES IN INDIAN SUGARCANE SEEDLINGS 



attention, when planted out in the field, by its great vigour. It had narrow 

 leaves and was very tall and it had a very large number of canes, in fact, it 

 stood out like a treein its plot, being entirely different to the rest of the seed- 

 linc^s (Plate XVIII). It had little resemblance to Sacchanim spontaneum and 

 there is no reason for supposing that it is a cross. In fact, it shares with 

 the aberrant Naanal seedlings a great flowering capacity, and has with them 

 abundant open anthers and good pollen. This is a character not usually 

 exhibited by crosses between sugarcanes and wild forms of Sacchaium. 

 The seedlings of Shakarchyniu X Saccharum spontaneimi (1912-14), Chin 

 X Saccharum spontancmn (1912-14), and VclJai x Saccharmn Narenga 

 (1913-15), while extraordinarily vigorous and Howoiing jnofusely, were 

 almost entirely infertile, as regards their male organs, the anthers being 

 persistently closed and with unformed pollen. 



Erectness of Young Shoots. 



This is judged by measuring the angle made by the young shoots with 

 the vertical line. As will be seen later, this angle varies with the age of the 

 plant. All stages are met with in the seedlings between strictly vertical shoots 

 ■ a nd those depressed so as to be parallel with the ground, and there seems to be a 

 connection between this obliquity in the seedlings and in their parents w^hen 

 planted from sets in the ground (Plate XIX). There is, furthermore, a great 

 general difference between the thick canes and their offspring and the indi- 

 genous Indian canes and their seedlings in this respect, comparatively slight 

 obliqueness being met with in the former. Such depressed habit in early 

 growth is not unknown elsewhere. Besides many grasses, it is c( mnu^n in " wiUl 

 jiaddies " and in certain wheats. It is also to be found in other classes of 

 ])lants. For instance, the young plants of Acacia levcophloca, a perfectly erect 

 tree, are often found lying prone on the ground. 



In Striped Mauritius, Ashy Mauritius, B. 20S and J((ra the j)arent shoots 

 appear rarely to deviate from the vertical more than 20 degrees, and. in tlicir 

 seedlings, of which some 1,500 have been raised during the present season, the 

 only two marked cases of depressed habit have been mentioned above, as 

 solitary plants among the Striped Mauritius and B 208 seedlings. Karun, 

 Chittan and Kaludai Boothan seem to be siniilai- in this cliaracter, but there 

 were comparatively few seedlings raised in these varieties during the year. 

 There would seem to be more obliqueness in the young shoots of VeUai than 

 is usual in thick canes, but comparatively few seedlings were obtained from 

 this cane during the year. A seedling raised in 191 1-13, Madras No. 2 (Kaludai 



