THESIS

1) Plant breadth
2) Plant branching
3) Number of flowers per inflorescence
4) Number of fruits per infructescence
5) Germination period
6) Fruit stalk length
7) Fruit length
8) Fruit breadth
9) Cotyledon leaf length/width ratio
10) Seed weight
However, the remaining four sets of traits (Table 8) considered to be
highly correlated were further examined. For each set, the trait that is normally
distributed was chosen to represent that set. To illustrate this selection process, the set
containing petiole length, leaf blade length and leaf blade width was considered.
Using the Shrapiro-Wilk test for normality from the PROC UNIVARIATE output
(Appendix Figure B7, B8 and B9), the p-values of these traits were 0.0618, 0.0074
and 0.0001, respectively. Such set exhibited normal distribution. However, the leaf
blade width was more normal distribution compared to leaf blade length and petiole
length, therefore, leaf blade width was chosen to present that set. In case of plant
height and flowering time set of traits, both p-values were equal to 0.0001. The
flowering time was chosen to present that set because plant height exhibited nonnormal
distribution but flowering time was normal distribution. For cotyledon leaf
length and cotyledon leaf width set of traits, both traits were more normal distribution.
The cotyledon leaf width was chosen over cotyledon leaf length because the
measurement of the former was considered to be easier and p-value (0.0005) was
almost to 0.0001 (Manigbas, 2005).
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