Observations on the Inheritance of Characters in Zea Mays. 269 
SUMMARY. 
In '* Ked Cuzco " and some other breeds of red maize the red colouring 
matter is confined to the pericarp ; being therefore a fruit character and 
not a seed character, it does not appear in the ear immediately resulting 
from a direct cross between a white $ and a red ^ . 
In a red dent breed under investigation the red pigment occurs in the 
aleurone layer, and not in the pericarp. Being a seed character it is 
transmitted directly by the pollen grain to the ovule of a white breed. It 
behaves as a dominant to whiteness ; where it meets yellowness in the 
same grain it is more conspicuous than yellow. The writer has not met 
with a previous record of the occurrence of a red pigment of this character 
in the aleurone layer of the maize grain. 
When this red dent is crossed with a white sugar breed, the segrega- 
tion in the second generation' of the two pairs of characters, redness v. 
whiteness and starchiness v. sugariness, is in approximately the following 
proportions : — 
-Is:::;' S:"!-'»» 
^^^.^ (Starchy 18-75 ^ ^ 
White ^ =25% 
^Sugary 6-25 j 
In other words — 
Red Grains. White Grains. 
Starchy grains 75% of 75% - 56-25% and of 25% = 18-75% 
Sugary grains 25% of 75% = 18-75% and of 25% - 6-25% 
75-00% 25-00% 
A single grain has been found on the ear studied, which distinctly 
shows the starchy character in one half and the sugary character in the 
other — a very unusual feature. 
A study of row-numbers in maize ears indicates that within certain 
hmits the number of rows of grain on an ear is subject to fluctuating 
variation, which may perhaps be affected by season or food-supply, or 
both. In more than 20 plants of Arcadia Sugar-maize studied this year, 
each of which produced two ears on one stalk, the uppermost ear has had 
a different number of rows from that of the lower ear. On 13 plants the 
largest number of rows occurred on the lower ear, while on 8 plants the 
largest number was on the upper ear. In 12 plants of two ears the row- 
numbers were the same on both. In one case there were 4 more rows on 
one ear than on the other. Several plants of Hickory King bearing two 
ears, have also produced different numbers of rows on the two ears. 
