The objective of this research was to establish the linear relationship among the variables: seed, seedling, adult plant and grain yield in two hybrids castor beans. The experiment was conducted at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria during the 2007/2008 growing season, using the hybrids Sara and Lyra, with three plots of each hybrid. Each plot with plot area of 240m² (15m length x 16m width) was formed by 13 rows. Before, an evaluation was conducted regarding individual variables of seeds on a total of 90 seeds for each hybrids. In each plot, the two central rows consisted of 30 plants and these were evaluated from emergence until harvest comprising seedling, adult plant and grain yield. In each group of variables the following propositions of the canonical correlation analysis were tested: multivariate normality, deviation homocedasticity, multicolinearity and linearity. Sara hybrid plants has significant canonical correlations among most groups of variables (seed and seedling; seedling and adult plant; seedling and production, and between adult plant and grain yield), indicating that the groups considered are not independent and there is a linear relationship between the groups. In the hybrid Lyra, the significant canonical correlations occured only between groups of seedlings and adult plant, and, between adult plant and produce.
Ricinus communis L.; multivariate analysis; linear relationship
