Detailed measurements of leaf growth and leaf dimensions in the seedling stage were made on lines which had been selected either for large or small leaf size or for fast or slow rates of leaf appearance within one population of Lolium multiflorum (Italian ryegrass) and two populations of L. perenne (Irish perennial and Hunsballe perennial ryegrass).

Selection for either character had no effect on the rate of initiation of primordia at the apex, but did change the rate at which successive primordia became leaves. This rate of unfolding was very highly correlated with the rate of visible appearance of leaves and in all cases showed a parallel response to selection for the latter, as did also the rate of maturation of leaves. All three rates showed a negative correlated response to selection for leaf size.

Selection for increased leaf size in all cases led to a longer duration of the elongation of an individual leaf, but selection for faster rate of leaf appearance always reduced this duration. The rate of elongation of individual leaves increased under selection for larger leaf size but showed irregular changes under selection for faster leaf appearance, going down in Irish but up in Hunsballe.

Data for dimensions of cells from the lower epidermis showed that changes in leaf length under selection were sometimes associated with changes in cell length, some-times in cell number and sometimes with both.

Selection had in no case disrupted the close association between the maturation and cessation of growth of a leaf on the one hand, and, on the other, the unfolding from the apex and onset of rapid growth of the next younger leaf on the same side of the apex. Thus in all lines only two leaves (one on each side of the apex) were elongating rapidly at any one time, and an increase in the rate of unfolding was associated with a decrease in the duration of elongation and vice versa.

This association was the basis of the observed negative correlated responses between leaf size and rate of leaf appearance. But the fact that the rate of elongation could change independently of the duration opened up the possibility of setting up a selection criterion which would increase the total rate of leaf area formation.

The value of this kind of analysis of a character complex in a plant-breeding programme is suggested to lie in discovering physiologically or developmentally limiting processes rather than merely identifying morphological components.