576 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVII, No. 8 
best inflorescence are coherences. Of the five coefficients which would 
seem to be disherences three are capable of another interpretation, 
the correlations with length of pistillate portion of best inflorescence, 
number of double staminate alicoles on best spike, and number of rows 
in the terminal spike of the best inflorescence. The almost complete 
sterility of the ramose plants acts in such a manner as to reduce the 
length of the pistillate portion of the best inflorescence, causing a negative 
correlation of ramose type with this character. The positive correlation 
with the number of double male alicoles on best spike also is a disherence 
as viewed from the standpoint of normal maize, but, again, the sterility 
of the pistillate inflorescence seems the true explanation. The failure 
to develop pistillate flowers was manifested in many cases by the pro¬ 
duction of staminate spikelets, and in some cases entire inflorescences 
were staminate. Sterility also seems the best explanation of the nega¬ 
tive correlation with the number of rows of alicoles on the temimal spike 
of the best inflorescence. 
Tabi,E VII .—Biserial correlations of ramose type with the characters named a 
Character. 
Cor¬ 
relation. 
Days pollen to silk. 
Length $ portion of best inflorescence.!_ 
Number of double alicoles on best spike.. 
Rows in the central spike... 
Rows in terminal spike of best inflorescence 
Length of longest tassel branch. 
Height. 
Length of best inflorescence. 
Days to silk. 
Position of best spike. 
Alicole index. 
Height of tallest sucker. 
Number of single 9 alicoles on best spike.. 
Number rows of alicoles on best spike. 
Leaves above best inflorescence... 
Length of best spike. 
Number of spikes in prophyllary. 
Total number of leaves. 
Number of suckers. 
Leaves on best inflorescence. 
Leaves above upper branch. 
Number of mixed male and female alicoles. 
Days to pollen. 
Total sucker height. 
Number of double 9 alicoles on best spike. 
o. 76 
— .60 
.46 
.42 
-.41 
“•3 6 
-.30 
-.28 
.24 
.22 
-.14 
-•13 
•13 
. 12 
. 12 
. 10 
-.09 
".09 
.08 
.08 
.06 
-•OS 
-.©3 
.00 
.00 
<* Coefficients in excess of 0.24 are greater than three times the error. 
Two outstanding disherences remain, for which there seems to be no 
logical interpretation. These are the negative correlation of ramose 
type with the number of rows in the central spike of the tassel, and the 
length of the longest tassel branch. A many-rowed central spike clearly 
is a maize character, and since it is part of the terminal staminate inflor¬ 
escence which showed no obvious signs of sterility in the group of ramose 
plants, there is no morphological explanation of the rather high negative 
correlation. The same is true also of the negative correlation with the 
length of the longest tassel branch, for which no explanation can be 
offered. 
