Feb. 23, 1924 
Teosinte Maize Hybrids 
539 
The fact that these teratological characters can be recognized in a 
homozygous condition permits measuring their correlations with other 
more complex multiple factor characters, and thus furnishes an oppor¬ 
tunity to determine to what extent they are correlated with the char¬ 
acters that differentiate maize from teosinte. 
The hybrid between Tom Thumb pop corn and teosinte showed that 
the characters of maize were correlated only to a very slight degree and 
that in many cases there were definite disherences where characters 
derived, one from the maize and the other from the teosinte parent, 
tended to reappear together. With the numerous factors involved, 
largely in a heterozygous condition, only low correlations could be ex¬ 
pected; but with simple or comparatively simple characters which can 
be recognized in the homozygous-recessive condition one would expect 
relatively higher, though fewer, correlations with the characters which 
differentiate maize from teosinte than were found in the Tom Thumb- 
teosinte hybrid. 
CRINKLY X TEOSINTE 
Crinkly is a variation of complex constitution affecting the form of leaf, 
the length of the leaf sheath, the stature of the plant, and the form of the 
terminal inflorescence. In hybrids with maize it has been found possible 
to separate this complex of characters into its several component parts. 
As stated by Emerson (< 5 ), "All of these characters are so variable, how¬ 
ever, that some plants classed as crinkly do not show prominently one or 
other of them. Considering all leaf characters together with stature and 
form of tassel, it is usually easily possible to separate crinkly from normal 
plants, but occasionally the separation is somewhat difficult.” 
Typical plants of crinkly are of short stature and have compact tassels 
with relatively short branches and central spikes; the leaves are short and 
broad, usually folded and crinkled, and often with pronounced lobes at 
the base, while the sheaths are short and often fail to cover the nodes. 
In the hybrids with teosinte there also was a difference in color, the 
crinkly plants seemingly being of a much darker green than plants of 
normal teosinte. In extreme cases the upper leaves of crinkly plants fail 
to unroll; not unfrequently in these cases pistillate flowers develop in the 
tassel or, more rarely, an immature ear is produced in the place of the 
lowest tassel branch or in the axil of the uppermost leaf. The crinkly 
plant used as the female parent of the hybrid with teosinte represented 
an average expression of these characters and possessed none of the char¬ 
acteristics of extreme plants. 
Two first-generation plants were grown in the greenhouse at Chula 
Vista, Calif., each producing several hundred seeds. Progenies from 
both of these F t plants were grown separately in the field, as well as a 
population of the first generation. The F 2 populations differed somewhat 
with respect to certain characters, thus precluding their combination in 
a statistical analysis without recourse to weighting factors; they there¬ 
fore were analyzed separately. 
With respect to the behavior of the crinkly character, the plants proved 
to be very much alike. The analysis of only one, therefore, is presented 
in detail. 
An effort was made to get measurements of the various crinkly char¬ 
acters, such as length and width of leaf, stature, and dimensions of the 
various parts of the tassel, and, in addition, the plants were graded as to 
