NOTES ON RECENT RESEARCH. 



1117 



Sweet Corn with Bed Grains. — Pink grains from ears having over 

 ten rows of grains in the cob were selected for seed. The number of 

 grains of each colour for five average ears was as follows : 



TJncoloured. Black. Red. 



69 21 342 



35 140 205 



43 115 322 



215 110 179 



82 21 257 



Average 90 81 261 



Average for 1900 172 121 92 



Thus, by selecting pink grains as seed, the number of red grains in the 

 cobs was very largely increased at the expense of the uncoloured and 

 black grains. 9 



There was a much greater range of variation in the ears this season 

 than last, and nearly all of them were more than eight-rowed, in this 

 respect showing that the ' Black Mexican ' type is largely lost. The 

 number of rows of grains in the cobs was counted for 100 ears where the 

 seed -ears varied in the number of rows. 



No. of rows in the ears from 

 which seed was taken. 



Produce. 



8-rowed cobs. 



10-rowed cobs. 



Over 10-rowed 

 cobs. 



Average. 



8-rowed ears 

 10 „ „ . . 

 12 „ . 

 14 „ „ 



26 

 46 

 27 

 1 



36 

 25 

 37 

 2 



21 

 44 

 31 

 4 



28 

 38 

 32 

 2 



Total . 



100 



100 



100 



100 



The ' Egyptian ' type, which has no fully established number of rows 

 in the cob over eight, seems to have had a preponderance of influence 

 over the ' Mexican ' type, which is an eight-rowed variety, in the production 

 of the number of rows in the ear. 



Other experiments were carried out with white and black seeds taken 

 from ears having more than ten rows. The colour of the seeds again 

 showed the preponderating influence of the mother in this direction. 





White. 



Pink. 



Black. Total. 



Ear from white seed 



330 



33 



93 456 



„ „ black „ 



178 



49 



193 420 



A count of the 



rows of seed in 



the best ears 



throughout the plot gave 



the following : 













White Seed. 



Black Seed. 



No. of 8-rowecTears 





15 



15 



„ 10- „ 





42 



41 



„ 12- „ 





58 



74 



„ 14- „ 





4 



6 



