42 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



the effect of the pollen is apparent the same year the cross is 

 made. 



The accompanying photograph shows an ear of corn with 

 about one fourth of the kernels blue, marked off on one part of 

 the ear. It was obtained by carefully dividing the silks and 

 bagging the shoot. Two days later pollen from blue flint was 

 placed on one part of the silks, the other being carefully pro- 

 tected with oiled paper. After forty-eight hours more the bag 

 was removed and the shoot was allowed to be open pollinated 

 with the pollen from the white dent of the field in which it 

 grew. A blue kernel appears ever3'where a silk received pollen 

 fiom blue flint. Two blue kernels appear out of line showing 

 the division not entirely accurate. There are also five white 

 kernels in the blue area. But in the illustration a dift'erence in 

 the intensity of blue pigmentation cattses some of the blues to 

 look as light colored as the pure white, while in the original 

 specimen the contrast between blue and white is more definitely 

 marked. The misplaced white kernels are marked on the pho- 

 tograph. By exercising sufficient patience and ingenuity many 

 rings or bands and stripes of color could be obtained, or parti- 

 colored ears to suit the manipulator's fancy. 



For the purpose of demonstrating- the immediate eft'ect of 

 the pollen in this ''manufactured'' ear, blue and white were the 

 contrasting characters chosen. Other characters that aff'ect the 

 color or texture of the endosperm could as well have been used. 

 For instance pollen from field corn transferred to sweet corn 

 or from corn with yellow endosperm to corn with white endo- 

 sperm would have served the same purpose. 



A\'ith tjiree varieties, white sweet, yellow dent, blue flint, 

 at his disposal, it would be possible for anyone to make an ear 

 containing kernels of three colors and two endosperm composi- 

 tions and of any design his imagination may suggest. Using 

 the white sweet (both of these are recessive characters) for the 



