The effect of seedling age and seedling number per hill on yield and yield contributing characters of Transplant Aman rice in Khulna region was investigated from July to December 2002.The treatments included in the experiment consisted of 4 seedling age (viz.15, 25, 35 and 45 day old seedling) and 5 seedling number hill-1 (viz. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). It was found that 25 day old seedling produced the tallest plant (118.87 cm), highest number of total tiller hill-1 (33.02), number of effective tiller hill-1 (30.37), longest panicle length (25.85 cm), highest number of grain panicle-1 (154.33), grain yield (5.14 t ha-1) and harvest index (43.28). Number of seedlings hill-1 had significant effect on plant height, total tillers hill-1, effective tillers hill-1, number of grains panicle-1, 1000 grain weight, grain yield and harvest index. The highest number of total tillers hill-1 (34.25), effective tillers hill-1 (32.11), number of grains panicle-1 (161.72), grain yield (5.19 t ha-1) and harvest index (45.72%) were found when two seedlings were planted hill-1. The highest value for 1000 grain weight (23.67g) was recorded when one seedling was planted hill-1. It was evident that two seedlings hill-1 with 25 day old seedling showed better performance in respect of growth and yield of rice.

A fast and reliable method for ploidy determination of regenerated Triticum aestivum from anther culture is described in the present work. The anthers of 47 hybrid combinations of winter wheat were cultured in vitro and the length of the guard cells was measured in regenerated plants. Thus, plants with a guard cell length of 32-46 mm were haploid, whilst plants with a guard cell length of 54-74 mm were diploid. Plants with a guard cell of 46-54 mm required further chromosome investigation for the exact determination of ploidy level.