Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding
WHEN plants of Brassica chinensis were crossed as females with different types of toria,
a differential increase in the size of the pods and of the seeds has been reported
(Singh, 1957). This has been explained as being due to the phenomenon called by the
author" Xenia ", and a suggestion has been made that this phenomenon can be
usefully exploited in increasing the seed yield of self-incompatible species of Brassica.
It would appear that what the author implies here by the term" xenia" is the pheno~
menon generally referred to as 'metaxenia'. The basic issues involved are (i)
whether increase in seed size is to be termed as a xenia effect, particularly when the bulk
(over 98 per cent) of the weight of the seed is made up of cotyledons; (ii) whether the
, reported increase in yield is due to an increase in seed weight or in seed number; (iii)
whether the increase in siliqua size (presumably length) is the cause or the effect of
increase in seed weight or number.
Year: 1961
Volume: 21
Issue: 1
Article DOI: NA
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
S. S. RAJAN and S. B. P. RAO info_circle
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