THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLVIII 



these varieties the pericarp of most of the grains has few 

 to many narrow stripes of dark red, the remaining area 

 being colorless or showing a sort of washed-out red. 

 Often broad red stripes appear on some grains, a single 

 stripe covering from perhaps one tenth to nine tenths of 

 the grain. Not uncommonly there are entirely colorless 

 grains (so far as pericarp is concerned) and also solid red 

 grains scattered over the ear. Much more rarely there 

 is found a "freak" ear with a large patch of self-red or 

 nearly self-red grains. Or sometimes an ear is composed 

 largely of red or almost red grains with a small patch of 

 striped or nearly colorless grains. In such cases it is not 

 uncommon for the margin of the red area to cut across a 

 grain so that one side — always the side toward the red 

 patch — is red and the other side colorless or striped. Ears 

 that are colorless throughout, except for a single striped 

 grain, are not unknown and there are even known ears 

 that are red except for a single striped grain. Very rarely 

 a plant has one self-red ear and one variegated ear on the 

 same stalk. It is also conceivable that all the ears of a 

 plant might thus become red, but of course such a red- 

 eared plant rising as a bud-sport could not ordinarily be 

 distinguished from a red-eared plant arising as a seed- 

 sport. 



Variegated ears generally have variegated cobs, the 

 amount of red in the cob ordinarily varying with the 

 amount of red on the grains. In some "freaks" a part 

 of the cob is solid red and the rest variegated. In a few 

 such cases the red part of the cob corresponds exactly in 

 position to the freak patch of grains. This is more fre- 

 quently true when the grains of the freak patch are dark 

 variegated than when they are self-red. In other ears 

 there is no change in the cob corresponding to the change 

 in the grains. The husks of variegated ears are also 

 rather commonly variegated. In a few freak ears the red 

 side of the ear is enclosed in reddish husks, the remainder 

 of the husks being light striped. Eed-eared plants aris- 

 ing as seed-sports always have solid red cobs and usually 

 solid reddish husks. 



