Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-01
COLOR IN CORN.
How the Different Varies tics of tho Cereal
Are Produced.

by the action of the winu, which car
res the pollen from the male to the fe-
male organs. The chief difference be-
tween corn and other grasses proceeds
from the separation of the male and
female organs into separate %f1orets, the
former gathered into a terminal pun
icle, while the latter form a spike lower
down upon the stalk, in the axel of a
leaf, and itself incloscd in leaves or
bracts. 1t is evident that this arrange
ment is we'll adapted to favor cross
fertilization, since %rollenfrom the male
flowers of an adjoining plant is just as
likely to reach the spike of female
flowers as pollen from the same plant.
1t has, therefore, usually been assumed
that the occasional presence of red ears
in a field of yellow or white corn, or of
white and yellow ears in the same field,
was caused by cross-fertilization
through the agency of the wind. It is
true that yellow and white grains, or
red and yellow grains, have
been found upon the same ear,
but this by no means dis
proves the idea of Decentralization,
since each spike is made up of many
%lorets, and there is no reason why all
should be fertilized by the same pollen
from the same plant. On December
10th of last year Mr.. Thomas Meehan
exhibited at the Philadelphia Academy
of Natural Sciences an ear of Indian
corn, one side of which had creamy
white grains of normal color, while
nearly all the other side was occupied
by brownish red grains. Several
grains show both colors, one-half red
the other half yellow. or a stripe of red
across the yellow. Mr.. Meehan con-
tended that this could not be caused
by Decentralization, since, because of
the way in which the silk-like pistils
are entangled, such a regularity of col
oring is impossible Moreover, it
seems very unlikely that two different
pollen-grains should find their way
through the long pistil to the same
ovule. 1t looked as though the color
ing had spread from some central
point, quite irrespective of the bounda-
ries of the several grains, until the
power was exhausted. Mr.. Meehan
mentioned similar phenomena in other
plants. He found a plant of partridge
berry (Mitchella repens) with white
berries, and removed a portion to his
grounds. This portion bore no
fruit, on account of the absence
of pollen-bearing plants, while the
bear white berries, though it must have
been fortified with pollen from the
original scarlet-berried form, since this
species is really diecious; that is, bears
male and female flowers. on separate
plants. Mr.. Meehan argues that there
may ''be doubt whether the variation
in corn, often attributed to cross-fertili
Eat on, may not, in some cases, result
from any innate power to vary" He
concludes with the remark that the be-
lief in the immediate influence of
strange pollen is a reasonable one so
far as general observation goes, but
that, as no carefully-conducted expert
ments seem to have been made, it is
we'll to wait for them. It may be re-
marked that the ''lnnate power to
vary'' invoked by Mr.. Meehan is but
another mode Of saying "causes to us
unknown" since any innate power
must be the result of transmitted char
acters, which must have been pro-
duced by the environment of the ances-
trail plants.
A correspondent of the Record OK. G.
F.) claims to have solved the problem.
He asserts that by treating plants in a
certain manner by supplying lacking
elements to the plants, variation in
color can be produced. He thus de-
tails his experiment.: "Some of the
same seed. not treated, 1 had planted
the season before, and found no change
of color. 1t vas much attacked by
smut, nearly every other stalk being
affected. In the last experiment not
one stalk showed any signs OF smut,
and twenty per cent. produced ears OF
a full, plump grain, different to the
original seed sown, which vas a dent
corn. 1t was on these altered ears only
that I got the various colors. The re-
naming eighty per cent. showed no
particular change in color, in form of
grain or in time of ripening. This
eighty per cent. ripened three weeks
later than the twenty per cent. which !
consider improved, and from which
am sure of a healthier growth, greater
productiveness and earliness in ripen.
ing"
1t is evident that this experiment
proves nothing either tor or against
the theory that the change of color is
produced by fertilization from the pol
len Of stalks bearing red ears. No care
seems to have been taken to prevent
the access OF pollen borne from other
sources, and wind-borne pollen flies a
long way. The good cars might have
been those which We're fertilized bypol-
len from n%eighboring fields, while the
poorer ones fertilized by pollen from
the same field, and could not thus ID
expected to be greatly better than this
parent crop. Moreover, if the manure
or method of treatment made the diff
ference, why We're only twenty per cent.
of the ears improved? To conclude,
cross-fertilization seems to he the mos
probable cause of variation in color.
The p~arti-colored grams do not dis.
pose of this idea, tor each grain, like
an animal, has two parents, and we car
readily conceive that some grains fer
tilted by the pollen of the rel variety,
yet in close proximity to yellow grains,
might only partially change from the
mother form under the influence OF fer
Observation-Disclosures Record.