The Mendelian Inheritance of Certain Chemical Characters in Maize. 



27 



1. In a cross between a white sweet ( ö parent) race and a yellow 

 dent starchy ( o parent) race determinations were made by direct 

 analysis of the percentage content of the grains of the pure parent 

 races and the Fi and F2 progeny in respect to the following chemical 

 constituents. 



a) Moisture. 



b) Nitrogen and protein. 



c) Crude fat (ether extract). 



d) Ash. 



e) Crude fiber. 



f) Pentosans. 



g) Sucrose, 

 h) Dextrose. 



i) Total sugars, 

 j) Starch. 



2. The results show that these chemical characters are inherited 

 in essential accordance with Mendelian principles, exhibiting the 

 phenomena of dominance and recessiveness, and segregation. The 

 following table shows the dominant and recessive conditions of these 

 characters in the cross studied. 



3. Analysis of the results leads to the conclusion that probably 

 each of the characters protein, crude fat and ash content segregates 

 as a definite and distinct unit character, separate from all others. The 

 same thing appears to be true of the characters crude fiber and 

 pentosans, though because of the difficulty of obtaining entirely reliable 

 analytical data for these characters it is not possible to reach so high 

 a degree of probability with these characters as with the others 

 mentioned. Sugar and starch content are known from direct obser- 



