BULLETIN 925, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table I. — Measurements of maize plants of two sister progenies, one of which 
was brachytic and the other normal in stature. 
Plant character. 
Brachytic. 
Normal. 
Height of plant 
Number of leaves: 
Above the upper ear 
decimeters.. 
8.66±0.10 
3.20±0.08 
22.90±0.19 
15.30±0.64 
14.20±0.27 
27. 60+0. 9S 
16.30+0.26 
20.50+.0.35 
62.60±6.20 
9.20±1.40 
14.40±0.24 
3.37±0.09 
Total 
20.80±0.27 
Number of branches in the tassel , 
25.90±1.01 
Ear length: 
Upper ear 
Total 
centimeters.. 
do,. 
16.40+.0.23 
2S.10+.0.71 
21.20±0.30 
Diameter of stalk 
Fourth leaf from top: 
Length 
Width 
Jg-inch.. 
centimeters.. 
do____ 
12.40±0.21 
64.40±S.90 
12.30±1.50 
The range in height of the brachytic plants was from 6 to 10 
decimeters with a coefficient of variability of 10.1 ±0.81. Xine hand- 
pollinated ears were obtained from these brachytic plants, from 
which progenies were grown the following season (Table II). In 
five cases colored and white seeds were planted separately, making 
14: progeny rows. Since no differences were found between the 
plants grown from seed of the two colors, they may be considered as 
single populations. The progenies from seeds of different colors of 
the same ear are grouped together in the table. In each pair the 
progeny grown from white seeds appears first. The differences in 
height between the progenies were for the most part insignificant, 
and while the measurements are given separately in Table II. it would 
,seem not unfair to consider them as a single population. The num- 
ber of individuals is then 286 with a mean height of 8.81±0.046. The 
range in height is from 5 to 13 decimeters with a coefficient of vari- 
ability of 13.1 ±0.37. 
The progenies differed somewhat in appearance, some having stiff 
erect leaves while in others the leaves were long and drooping, like 
those of the plant shown in Plate I. They differed also in produc- 
tivity, the best-yielding progeny exceeding the. poorest by more than 
100 per cent. The diversity among the progenies, however, was no 
greater than is ordinarily found among sister progenies of normal 
stature. 
All but one progeny had about 25 per cent of the plants with 
aborted male inflorescences (PL III). The degree of abortion varied 
from plants having a few of the branches aborted at the tips or per- 
haps several short naked branches to those which aborted all the 
tassel branches or bore only undeveloped spike-lets. The progenies 
also varied in the percentage of affected plants, but for the 274 plants 
involved 27± 1.81 per cent showed this abnormal behavior. 
The abortion of the male inflorescence did not affect the female 
inflorescence, and the yield of such plants was as great as that of un- 
