RAMOSE INFLORESCENCE IN MAIZE. 
9 
of the ramose character could be established. Since no further gen- 
erations were contemplated at the time of flowering, none of the 
second-generation plants was hand-pollinated. In order to test the 
possibility of isolating intermediate strains, two open-pollinated ears 
were saved for planting. Both ears were grown from and had a 
preponderance of white seeds, indicating that little cross-pollination 
had taken place, since most of the adjacent sister progenies were 
producing yellow seeds. One ear was unbranched and the other had 
only four basal branches, but both were from plants which produced 
obviously intermediate ramose tassels, as is shown in Table III in 
comparison with the tassel measurement of their Ramosa parent. 
Table III. — Tassel measurements of the Ramosa parent compared with those 
of two plants having branched and normal ears selected from the third gen- 
eration of maize hybrids. 
Measurements of length (centimeters) . 
Number 
of 
branches. 
Central 
spike 
index. 
Form of ear. 
Branch- 
ing space. 
Central 
spike. 
Upper- 
most 
branch. 
Lowest 
branch. 
27.7 
29 
20 
5 
7 
11 
1.8 
3 
3 
20.7 
24 
22 
133.7 
68 
63 
15.5 
19 
35 
From the unbranched ear 23 plants were raised, 13 of which pro- 
duced ears with branches ranging in number from 2 to 35, but none 
approaching a typical ramose ear. These branched ears, as well as 
some of the unbranched ones, were produced by plants that had 
tassels intermediate between normal and ramose. Some of the plants 
with unbranched ears obviously were hybrids with normal plants, 
but the ears of others could be classed definitely as resembling the 
parental unbranched ear. 
Grown as progeny of the 4-branched ear were 19 plants, and of 
these 7 were branched, 1 being a good ramose, while the other 6 had 
from 3 to 15 branches. In this progeny, as in the other, tassels 
intermediate between ramose and normal were found. 
FOURTH GENERATION. 
Of the 42 plants in the third-generation progenies, 18 were self- 
pollinated and progenies were grown from them. These 18 plants 
varied in the number of branches on the ear from none to a typical 
ramose inflorescence. All of the plants showed unmistakable signs 
of their Ramosa ancestry in the form of the tassel (PL XI). The 
measurements of the F 4 plants are given in Table IV. 
51551°— 21— Bull. 971 2 
