icjo 



MAIZE 



.MAP. 

 V. 



R 6 . — A rose-red resembling R 4 , but occurring in lesser 

 amounts, and on thick-husked ears only detected by very 

 careful examination. It behaves with its absence as a sepa- 

 rate allelomorphic pair to R 4 . 



R (i . — Is a dark red pericarp colour of sugar maize, from 

 an |ear of unknown parentage, found by the writer in South 



Africa. The combined red colour 

 and wrinkled endosperm tend to 

 give the impression of dried raisins. 



145. Somatic Variation in Peri- 

 carp Colour. — Cases not infrequently 

 occur in which an ear in a crop of 

 white develops red pericarp on one 

 side, or part of one side, of the 

 ear, and white, or white striped 

 with red, on the other side or part 

 of that side (Fig. 80). Such cases 

 have been attributed by East and 

 Hayes to bud variations similar to 

 those which occur in perennial garden 

 plants, and also, though less fre- 

 quently noticed, in annuals. In such 

 cases the plant due to produce a red 

 ear varies somatically so that one 

 part of the ear becomes red and the 

 rest white or striped. In a case 

 which they record, this variation was 

 transmitted by the seeds. 



146. Silk-colour. — Maize silks 

 vary from almost colourless, through 

 cream and green, to dark red. Some- 

 times the style itself is red, some- 

 times only the hairs on the style. 

 Sometimes the colour of the silk is 



coupled with that of the pericarp, and perhaps also with colour 

 in the glumes. But redness of the silk occurs commonly 

 when the cob and pericarp are not coloured. According to 

 East and Hayes, study of the transmission of this colour char- 

 acter is obscured by the action of the bag over the ear to be 

 hand-pollinated, which prevents the full development of the 



Fig. 80. — Somatic variation 

 in pericarp colour. 



