The Inheritance of a Somatic Variation in Maize 17 
The principal facts of interest here are the production 
of only one red-eared plant to about 140 variegated-eared 
ones from narrow-striped seeds, and of about one red- 
eared to two variegated-eared plants from seeds with 
from one half to perhaps three fourths red. 
Of 20 variegated ears, heterozygous for pericarp color, 
that were crossed with pollen from pure non-colored 
strains, 5 had only narrow-striped grains and 15 had 
variously broad-striped grains and even some self-red 
ones. The summaries of these crosses are as follows : 
Seeds Planted 
Number of Plants with 
Self-red Ears 
Variegated Ears 
Non-red Ears 
Self-red 
9 
0 
11 
Nearly self-red 
5 
0 
2 
More than one half red 
4 
2 
2 
Less than one half red 
3 
5 
9 
Narrow red stripes 
7 
265 
301 
Non-red 
0 
27 
20 
Here again, just as with homozygous, variegated ears, 
the more red there is in the pericarp the more likely are 
the female gametes to carry a factor for self -red. While 
the number of individuals dealt with are too few to afford 
reliable evidence, it is suggestive to note that the ratio of 
red-eared to variegated-eared plants, though not the ratio 
of red-eared to total plants, is greater in case of parent 
ears that are heterozygous than of those that are homozy- 
gous for variegated pericarp. 
So far nothing has been said of the results in genera- 
tions later than the one grown from the selected seeds 
(FJ. Let us now see what results follow when the varie- 
gated ears and the red ears produced as explained above 
become the parents of second generations (F 2 ) from the 
selected seeds. The variegated ears so produced behave 
like the original variegated ears from which seeds were 
selected and their progenies have, therefore, been included 
in the data already presented. There remains only to 
present the records of the progenies of red ears. 
