The meiosis of Tripsacum australe, a new specie native in South America and described by CUTLER and ANDERSON (3) was studied in detail. All stages were found to be normal and the chromosome number equal to 18 in the haploid phase. The most peculiar fact found in this plant was the absence of knobs, mainly at the end of chromosomes and shown in figs. 1 to 4. According to the above observations, this specie seems to be different from the species studied by LONGLEY (5) and the importance of this point regarding the problems of origin of maize was emphasized.