172 STUDIES IN INDIAN SUGARCANE SEEDLINGS 



single seedling, No. 1810, with 20-40% sucrose. It might be consiilered better 

 to avoid the inclusion of this series in the tables that follow, but it has been 

 retained in order to help us in judging the lower limits of numbers which can 

 be safely employed, and the nature of the error met with in dealing with very 

 small numbers. 



These are all general collections in which the father is not definitely known. 

 The Naanal seedlings, also a general collection, do not fall into line, although 

 some seventy in number. In fact, the correlation, although somewhat irre- 

 gular, is distinctly positive. A tendency in the same direction is traceable in 

 Vellai X Saccharmn Narenga and, to a less extent, in Shaharchynia X Sac- 

 charum Sfontaneum, all the members of which two series are undoubted crosses. 

 This fact tends to support the suggestion that the Naanal seedlings of 1912-14, 

 purporting to be a general collection, may be comprised, to a certain extent, 

 of crosses, some of which show a strong resemblance to Saccharmn syonianeum. 

 It is also, however, worth noting that the general series, with the probable 

 exception of the small Cheni class, are thick canes, whereas Naanal is an 

 indigenous Indian one, the only one besides Cheni belonging to this class in the 

 seedlings measured. It is, namely^ .possible that the thicker tropical canes 

 difEer in these correlations from the Indian canes. Be that as it may, the 

 diiierence in behaviour between the general collections and the crosses is 

 interesting and will be met with in several other cases. It has suggested itself 

 that the deviation of the Naanal results, from those obtained for Karun, 

 Chilian and other general collections, might be caused by the inclusion of the 

 six aberrant forms noted on page 134, as all of them had markedly low sucrose 

 content and very narrow leaves. Figures have accordingly been prepared 

 for the Naanal seedlings in this and other tables in two ways, firstly, by taking 

 all the seedlings and, secondly, by eliminating the six seedlings resembling 

 Sacchanmi spont((neum. The general results in the two sets of correlation 

 tigures obtained are, however, more or less similar. 



