A New Subspecies of Zea mays L.

Abstract

WHILE harvesting plot of yellow dent corn, strain of the Leading variety grown on the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station fields in 1909, one of the workmen found peculiarly shaped ear which was laid aside in the drying-room as curiosity. The corn in which this ear was found came from strain that had been subjected for several generations to an ear-row selection for high protein content by mechanical inspection of the endosperm.1 This new type of ear which reproduces faithfully in its progeny is cone-shaped in outline and gives the appearance externally of being composed of mass of kernels borne on numerous irregular branches (see a in the figure). A longitutdinal section (at b) displayed kernels throughout the ear. The branched form is prolification of the fleshy type of 4 to 30 or more-rowed cob common to all varieties that to the writer's knowledge have been described to date. For this new type the writer proposes the name Zea ramnosa, from the Latin ramosus-having many branches. This name is proposed in conformhity with the bi-nomial classification of Sturtevant2 which is now generally recognized. We will not here discuss the precedence nor the desirability of Sturtevant 's nomenclature for the subspecies of corn which were all grouped at first by Linnieus under the general head Zea mays. The new type Z. ramosa (branched) is as much deserving of specific name as are any of the six groups recognized by Sturtevant, namely: tunicata (pod), everta (pop), indlurata (flint), indentata (dent), amylacea (soft), saccharata (sweet). The first of these six groups has more or less monstrous development of glumes into pods which inclose each kernel on the ear with leafy bracts known as the husks. The classification of the other five groups is based on differences in characters situated in the endosperm of the kernel. l Representative samples of the ears thus obtained for planting in the next year were also analyzed chemically to determine the efficiency of the method of mechanical selection. 2 Sturtevant, E. L., Bul. Torr. Bot. Club, 21: 319-343, 1894; Off. Exp. Sta. UT. S. D. A., Bul. 57: 7-108, 18,99. 616