6 
Research Bulletin No. 4 
It is characteristic of the ears of certain varieties of maize 
known, at least in the Middle West, as "calico" corn. In 
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 
