Jan. 1, 1925 
A Study of Variability in the Burt Oat 
57 
habit characteristic of such varieties as 
Kherson and Swedish Select. Varia¬ 
tions in size of culm, leaf width, leaf 
color, and other plant characters also 
have been observed, as well as distinct 
differences in time of heading and of 
ripening. A few plants were observed 
among the material grown at Akron 
Field Station in 1921, which appeared 
to have the growth habit of true winter 
oats and which failed to produce heading 
culms. 
A few of the more unusual plant 
variations will be described in a little 
greater detail because of their relation 
to the general problem of variability in 
Burt oat. It is expected that the 
breeding behavior of some of these 
variants will be more fully described 
in other papers. It is interesting to 
note that while more plant variations 
have been observed in Burt than in 
almost any other variety, no dwarf 
forms such as have been described by 
Warburton {145) and Stanton {125) 
have yet been observed in Burt. It 
also is noteworthy that only a few false 
wild types have been observed in 
these experiments on variability in 
Burt oat, although they frequently 
occur in some other varieties of Avena 
byzantina. 
CHLOROPHYLL DEFICIENCY 
The first of these variations observed 
exhibited a chlorotic condition, mani¬ 
fested in the form of leaf striping. 
Chlorophyll abnormalities in small 
grains have been described by Nilsson- 
Ehle {94, 97), Kalt {56), Kiessling {59, 
60), Akerman {3), Christie {19), Wiebe, 22 
and others. East and Hayes {31), 
Emerson {32), Gernert {46), Miles {78), 
and Lindstrom {65, 66) have described 
various chlorotic types in corn. 
The original showing this striped 
condition of the leaves was first no¬ 
ticed in 1920 at the Akron Field Station 
shortly after the plant emerged, and 
throughout the life of the plant, as far 
as could be observed, the proportionate 
area of the leaves affected remained the 
same, neither increasing nor decreasing 
as the plant developed. This plant 
made only about one-half the growth 
attained by the normal green plants 
from the same parental strain and 
matured a single panicle bearing a few 
kernels. 
Seeds of this plant were sown in 1921 
at the Akron station, but out of 13 
seedlings only 1 plant reached maturity. 
Some of these plants appeared to be 
white, or entirely devoid of chlorophyll. 
The 1 plant grown to maturity in 1921 
showed the striped condition similar to 
the original variant, but the striping 
was less marked. The seeds of this 
plant were sown in individual pots in 
the greenhouse of the Kansas Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station at Manhattan 
in the fall of 1921. The chlorotic con¬ 
dition was exhibited in varying degrees 
by a considerable number of the plants 
grown. No albinos appeared among 
these progeny plants. 
Seed from each of the plants grown 
to maturity in the greenhouse at Man¬ 
hattan in the winter of 1921-22 was 
sown at the Akron station in 1922. 
About 800 plants were grown, of 
which a considerable percentage exhib¬ 
ited the chlorotic condition in varying 
degrees, ranging from only a few 
rather indistinct longitudinal yellowish- 
white stripes to the apparent total 
absence of chlorophyll. 
MULTIFLOROUS SPIKELETS 
A second variant type was observed 
in 1920 at Akron. It had the multi¬ 
florous spikelets which Stanton {124) has 
shown to characterize the hull-less or 
naked oat. This variation has been 
described by Coffman and Quisenberry 
{20). The outer glumes were long, re¬ 
sembling those of Avena nuda. The 
spikelets were multiflorous, containing 
from two to six florets per spikelet 
which Spillman {122) has reported that 
Von Tschermak found to be correlated 
with the hull-less condition of A. nuda. 
Approximately 40 to 50 per cent of 
the kernels threshed free from the 
glumes as in Avena nuda. The plant 
was similar in general appearance to 
the Fi plant of a cross between a hulled 
and a hull-less oat, as described by 
Norton {99), Zinn and Surface {161), 
Gaines {40), Caporn {14), and Love 
and McRostie {73). All of these 
writers have observed that the Fi 
plants of the hulled X hull-less cross 
exhibit an intermediate condition and 
that hulled and hull-less kernels are 
found in the Fi plants in varying per¬ 
centages. Caporn {14) has observed a 
definite arrangement of hulled and hull¬ 
less kernels in the various parts of the 
panicles of the Fi plants. No such ar¬ 
rangement was observed in this variant 
plant nor in the progeny grown from it. 
22 Wiebe, G. A. a case of albinism in barley. Jour. Heredity. 15:221-222. 1924 
EXPLANATORY LEGEND FOR PLATE 7 
A.—Multiflorous spikelet of Burt oat, Kansas No. 6090, resembling Avena nuda. Note the d^rk color 
and firm texture of lemmas of upper florets. B.—Typical multiflorous spikelet of hull-less oat, Arena 
nuda. C.—Typical spikelet of Burt oat, Kansas No. 6090. 
