EAMOSE INFLORESCENCE IN MAIZE. 



9 



of the ramose character could be established. Since no further gen- 

 erations were contemplated at the time of flowering, none of the 

 second-generation plants was hand-pollinated. In order to test the 

 possibility of isolating intermediate strains, two open-pollinated ears 

 were saved for planting. Both ears were grown from and had a 

 preponderance of white seeds, indicating that little cross-pollination 

 had taken place, since most of the adjacent sister progenies were 

 producing yellow seeds. One ear was unbranched and the other had 

 only four basal branches, but both were from plants which produced 

 obviously intermediate ramose tassels, as is shown in Table III in 

 comparison with the tassel measurement of their Ramosa parent. 



Tablk III. — Tassel measurements of the Ramosa parent compared tvith those 

 of tioo plants having branched and normal ears selected from the third gen- 

 eration of maize hybrids. 





Measurements of length (centimeters). 



Number 



of 

 branches. 



Central 

 spike 

 index. 



Form of ear. 



Branch- 

 ing space. 



Central 

 spike. 



Upper- 

 most 

 branch. 



Lowest 

 branch. 





27.7 



29 



20 



5 



■ 7 

 11 



1.8 



3 



3 



20.7 



24 



22 



133.7 



68 



15.5 



Unbranched 



19 





63 3.-) 











From the unbranched ear 23 plants were raised, 13 of which pro- 

 duced ears with branches ranging in number from 2 to 35, but none 

 api^roaching a typical ramose ear. These branched ears, as well as 

 some of the unbranched ones, were produced by plants that had 

 tassels intermediate between normal and ramose. Some of the plants 

 with unbranched ears obviously were hybrids with normal plants, 

 but the eai-s of others could be classed definitely as resembling the 

 parental unbranched ear. 



Grown as progeny of the 4-branched ear were 19 plants, and of 

 these 7 were branched, 1 being a good ramose, while the other G had 

 from 3 to 15 branches. In this progeny, as in the other, tassels 

 intermediate between ramose and normal were found. 



FOURTH GENERATION. 



Of the 42 plants in the third-generation progenies, 18 were self- 

 pollinated and progenies were grown from them. These 18 plants 

 varied in the number of branches on the ear from none to a typical 

 ramose inflorescence. All of the plants showed unmistakable signs 

 of their Ramosa ancestrj^ in the form of the tassel (PI. XI). The 

 measurements of the F^ plants are given in Table IV. 

 51551°— 21— Bull. 971 2 



