In previous work (Bourdu and Gregory 1983), we showed that several parameters of the beginning of maize growth could be used for an intervarietal comparison. The same type of analysis was used to compare the effect of grain size and shape of the same corn variety (LG 11) on the characteristics of early growth. Seedlings from larger grains are found to exhibit higher growth rates; it is the same for those from round grains. However, if most characters are affected, there is one that remains constant: it is the one that measures the efficiency of use of seminal reserves for the construction of functional photosynthetic equipment. This characteristic can therefore be considered as a varietal constant.
The effect of seed size and shape on early development in maize.
In a previous paper in this series, we showed (Bourdu and Gregory 1983) that several parameters of early growth could be useful for intercarietal comparisons. We have used the same type of analysis to study the effect of grain size and shape in a variety of maize (LG 11). We found that large grains are associated with higher growth rates and that production forms better seedlings than flat ones. Most of these characters are affected by grain size and shape, but they are constant in the four-dimensional grain categories, ie the efficiency of utilization of maternal reserves for the photosynthetic apparatus. Thus this criterion can be considered as a genotypic characteristic.

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