408 NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



the planting. This is true, however, that the ears borne singly in this 

 lot gave a higher average than the triplets above tabulated, and the 

 same is true of the pairs of ears, so that the average of the number of 

 rows is brought up to fully that of the seed ears, and the experiment 

 shows clearly that the grains from ears with many rows have a tend- 

 ency to produce ears similar to those furnishing the seed. 



This is only an incidental fact, and the still more important one is 

 the exhibition of the tendency to ear formation. This is made more 

 evident when it is stated that upon all the other plots of corn in all 

 432 hills, not a single triplet was found, and comparatively few twins. 

 In order to get the required amount of the ears desired no attempt 

 to use twin ears was possible. It is regretted that the number of 

 twins was not recorded, but, as stated, they were not common. On 

 the other hand, in the half plot in question, where two twins and a 

 triplet were used for seed, the number of ears was 272, or nearly an 

 average of two ears to the stalk, exclusive of many "suckers " that 

 sometimes eared at the tip in a cluster of grain-bearing spikes. 



FURTHER OBSERVATIONS UPON SALSIFY HYBRIDS. 



In the report for last year (pages 445-447) the results up to that 

 time are given upon the work in the crossing common garden salsify, 

 or "oyster plant," Tragopogon porrifolius L. , with the wild species, 

 T. prate-nsis L. The hybrid plants, twelve in all, seeded sparingly, 

 and these seeds were sown in Plot L, Series VI; but owing to the un- 

 favorable dry weather the autumn growth was not as it might have 

 otherwise been. The seeds from each hybrid plant were sown in 

 separate rows, that any differences in the offspring might be noted. 



The two parent species, while agreeing closely in many things, are 

 strikingly different in the color of the flowers, those of the cultivated 

 salsify being light violet red violet"^, while that of the wild species 

 is deep yellow. 



It is seen, therefore, that in one parent the floral colors are a mix- 

 ture of violet and red, the violet predominating, while the other is a 

 simple yellow. There are two types of the crossed plants as regards 

 the color of the inflorescences, namely, (1) with both the ray and 

 the central flowers all colored alike, darker red, red violet, and (2) 

 those with only the ray flowers, the above color, while the smaller 

 central flowers are yellow, excepting possibly the tops of the ligulate 

 corollas ; in short, the central flowers closely agree with those of the 

 male parent. This second type favors the wild species, and the first 



*rn this record, Prang's color chart is emploved. 



