554 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVII, No. 8 
inheritance of measured characters 
Although plant height is one of the distinguishing characteristics of 
crinkly, none of the measurements of height in the second generation 
showed indications of Mendelian segregation, the distributions being 
similar to those of the same character in the Tom Thumb-Florida 
cross (5). The same is true also of the number of suckers, of which 
Euchlaena has a great many and crinkly none. It is of interest to note 
that the mean number of suckers in the crinkly hybrid was only about 
one-fourth the mean number produced in the Tom Thumb hybrid. 
In the number of leaves above the uppermost lateral inflorescence 
both F x and F 2 differed from previous hybrids of maize and teosinte. 
The mean of 3.22 ±0.06 nodes above the uppermost lateral inflorescence 
on the Fj plants is much greater than is usually the case, and is of par¬ 
ticular interest, in view of the rather definite tendency of the crinkly 
variation to produce an ear in the axil of the uppermost leaf. 
In the second generation the mean number was only slightly increased, 
resembling other hybrids in that the mean of the second-generation 
plants with respect to this character closely approximates that of the F r 
In range some plants were produced with more nodes above the upper¬ 
most lateral inflorescence than would be found in the maize parent, while 
none returned completely to the teosinte parent in this character. 
In the total number of leaves produced on the main stalk, the inher¬ 
itance was as expected and the distribution is regular. This applies also 
to the characters of the staminate inflorescence, though it is worthy of 
note that the number of tassel branches is very large, both in the first 
and second generation. In fact, the number of tassel branches in the 
first generation of the crinkly hybrid was greatly in excess of the number 
found in the F 4 of the ramose hybrid, to be discussed, the positions being 
reversed in the second generations of these hybrids. 
The number of days from germination to flowering and the alicole 
index are the only characters of the 38 which show indication of Mendelian 
or discontinuous inheritance, the distribution of the plants for these 
characters (fig. 31, 32, and 37) being bimodal. The bimodality of the 
distributions for the number of days to flowering are of particular interest, 
since crosses between early and late varieties of maize have never shown 
any indication of bimodality in the F 2 . The alicole index showed a 
bimodal distribution in the second generation of the Tom Thumb-teosinte 
hybrid also, but while the greatest number of plants are found with a high 
index in the crinkly hybrid, the reverse is true for the Tom Thumb hybrid. 
This behavior follows from that of the F 1 , where it was found that in the 
crinkly hybrid the single female alicole form of teosinte was partially 
dominant to the double female alicole of maize. The general character 
of the spikes, however, resembled the Fj of teosinte X Tom Thumb in 
that they were flat and broad, suggesting a secondary ear of maize much 
more nearly than a spike of teosinte. 
The inheritance of the proterogynous habit of teosinte, as expressed 
by the number of days from pollen to silk, was very different in the 
crinkly hybrid from previous maize teosinte hybrids, in that though the 
Fj was proterandrous by a mean of 2.08 days the F 2 was proterogynous 
by an almost equal time, i. e., 2.04 days. In other hybrids the decidedly 
proterogynous habit of teosinte has failed to reappear in the F 2 , while 
the F x usually is even more proterandrous than the maize parent. 
