No. 566] INHERITANCE IN EARS OF MAIZE 103 



if the plant bearing it were a hybrid between pure red and 

 variegated races. Moreover, one half of the gametes 

 arising from such somatic cells would carry V and one 

 half would carry S, just as if the plant were a hybrid of 

 red and variegated types. Or, if both V factors were 

 changed, the grains would be self-red as before, but all 

 instead of half the gametes would carry S. If, however, 

 the modification from VV to VS should occur very early 

 in the life of the plant, or even of the embryo, all the ears 

 of the plant might thereby become self-red, and one half 

 of all the gametes both male and female might then carry 

 8 and the other half V as in the ordinary hybrid. Or the 

 plant might then become a sectorial chimera with one 

 variegated ear and one red ear, the gametes from the one 

 side of the plant all carrying V. If the modification 

 occur much later, say soon after the ear begins to form, 

 there might then be merely a solid patch of red grains on 

 an otherwise variegated ear. In this case only those 

 gametes arising from these smaller masses of tissue would 

 carry half S and half V. If, however, the modification 

 occur after the grains begin to form, the latter might be 

 perhaps three fourths red, or one half red, or merely have 

 narrow stripes of red, depending upon the amount of peri- 

 carp directly descended from the modified cell. In this 

 case it seems reasonable to assume that the larger the 

 mass of modified tissue the greater the chance that the 

 gametes concerned should carry S. Finally, if in certain 

 grains the change never occurs, they should show no red 

 and the gametes formed in connection with them should 

 all carry V, none 8. 



Similarly, it may be assumed that in any cell of a heter- 

 ozygous, variegated-eared plant, V— the V factor may 

 as before become an S factor. The effect on pericarp 

 color would be exactly the same as in a homozygous, vari- 

 egated plant, and, of the gametes arising from the modi- 

 fied tissue, one half would carry S as in the other case, 

 but the other half, instead of carrying V, would carry no 

 factor and would be represented by — . 



