Morphological and functional difference of anthers in a floret of barley.

[摘要] 1. In a floret of barley there are three anthers. 0ne of them is located at the side of outer glume while the other two are located at the side of inner glume (fig. I). The former is herewith called the first anther and the latter are called the second and the third anther respectively. 2. The first anther is characterized by the angle made between the lower ends of one-side locules and opposite-side ones at the attaching point of anther filament. This angle is called by the auther an anther's angle. The first anther's angle is, in many cases, remarkably greater than those of other two (fig. II). Meantime, no difference is recognized between the anther's angle of the other two. 3. The first anther is not only peculiar in the above-mentioned morphologycal point, but is also functionally inferior to the other two, showing the less diameter of pollen grains as well as delayed and smaller splitting of anther. 4. The first anther's angle in each bred line of a variety "Moravia" shows a positive significant correlation with the percentage of sterility of floret in them. Still more, when the ear is divided into three parts of upper, middle and lower, the angles of first anther in the upper part is greater than those in the remained two parts, in correspondence with the occurrence of sterility of floret that is also higher in the upper part than in the others. Within a plant, the first anther of the longest culm, that is usually consisted of main culm, is provided with a smaller angle than those of the shorter culm. 5. In view of those points, it is suggested that the first anther's angle might have a close correlation with the sterility of floret directly or indirectly.

[学科分类] 农业科学（综合）