UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
jZ&'Q^ru 
% BULLETIN No. 1011 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 
WM. A. TAYLOR Chief 
Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER. February 23, 1922 
EFFECTS OF MUTILATING THE SEEDS ON THE 
GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVENESS OF CORN. 
By E B Brown, 1 Agronomist, Corn Investigations, Office of Cereal Investigations. 
■ f .7 . ' ;2 .■-* 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Previous investigations of the effects of the re- 
moval of food reserves from seeds 1 
Experiments on the effects of the mutilation - 
of the germs 8 
Experiments on the effects of mutilation of Germination of the mutilated germs 9 
the seed coats and endosperms 3 i Growth and seed production of the muti- 
Preparation of the seeds 4 | lated germs 10 
Plan of the experiments 4 \ Summary 12 
Experimental data on the effects of the muti- Literature cited 13 
lation of the seed coats and endosperms ... 5 
PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS OF THE EFFECTS OF THE REMOVAL OF 
FOOD RESERVES FROM SEEDS. 
The effects of the removal or suppression of portions of the food 
reserves of the seed upon germination and upon the subsequent 
growth and development of the plant have been investigated exten- 
sively. Following is a brief account of some of the experiments that 
are more or less analogous to those reported in this bulletin. 
Sachs (-5) 2 was perhaps the first to germinate embryos of maize 
detached from the endosperm. They developed 'dwarf plants that 
soon perished. These germinations were made during the course of 
investigations upon the processes of germination, and there seems to 
have been no attempt to extend the experiments beyond the early 
stages of growth. 
Van Tieghem (8) reports that in an experiment in which he dis- 
sected the plumule, the radicle, and the cotyledons out of seeds of 
Helianthus annuus, he found that these fundamental organs not only 
were capable of independent growth but each was capable of regener- 
ating the other two and developing perfect plants. In somewhat 
1 The writer acknowledges his indebtedness to J. M. Hammerly and H. S. Garrison, of the Office of Cereal 
Investigations, for aid in conducting these experiments. 
2 The serial numbers (italic) in parentheses refer to " Literature cited," at the end of this bulletin. 
07250°— 22— Bull. 1011 1 
