The Inheritance of a Somatic Variation in Maize 23 
gametes concerned should carry 8. Finally, if in certain 
grains the change never occurs, they should show no red 
and the gametes formed in connection with them should 
all carry V, none S. 
Similarly, it may be assumed that in any cell of a heter- 
ozygous, variegated-eared plant, V — , the V factor may 
as before become an S factor. The effect on pericarp 
color would be exactly the same as in a homozygous, vari- 
egated plant, and, of the gametes arising from the modi- 
fied tissue, one half would carry S as in the other case, 
but the other half, instead of carrying V, would carry no 
factor and would be represented by — . 
If the interpretation suggested here is correct, it is to 
be expected that the more red there is in the pericarp of 
any seeds, i. e., the larger the mass of tissue descended 
from the cell in which the change from V to 8 took place, 
the greater the chance that the female gametes concerned 
carried the factor 8. With heterozygous, variegated- 
eared plants, V — , however, never more than half of the 
gametes concerned could carry S even in case of self-red 
grains, the other half of the gametes carrying no factor, 
— . Of the heterozygous, variegated ears the progenies 
of which have been reported here, some were self ed, some 
crossed with white, and some open-pollinated. From self- 
pollinated ears, self-red and nearly self-red seeds yielded 
32 red-eared, 9 variegated-eared, and 14 non-red-eared 
plants, or practically 58 per cent, self -red. This excess of 
self-red ears may be due, in part at least, to the presence 
of the S factor in some of the male gametes concerned, but 
the numbers are too small to give very reliable indica- 
tions. From similar ears that instead of being selfed 
were crossed witji white, so that the results could not have 
been influenced by factors present in the male gametes, 
self-red and nearly self-red seeds produced 14 plants with 
red ears and 13 with non-red ears, or about 52 per cent, 
red. "While these numbers are very small, the fact that 
