COLLINS—APOGAMY IN THE MAIZE PLANT. 455 
While these young plants, being produced in the place of regular 
sexual organs, may properly be called apogamous, yet the phenomenon 
is closely related to the common forms of asexual reproduction, par- 
ticularly to that observed in some of the small varieties of maize that 
produce ears at the surface of the ground. Several such cases have 
been observed in which roots were developed on the lower nodes of 
these ear-bearing branches and the ear was able to continue an inde- 
pendent existence after the main plant was dead, the husk leaves act- 
ing as assimilating organs. This, it will be noted, exactly parallels 
the present example even to the pistillate terminal inflorescence, the 
only difference being that of location. 
The development of these apogamous plants seems to prove that 
even the most highly specialized organs of the corn plant still retain 
in latent form the characters of the other parts of the plant. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXIV.—Young plants and spikelets from the tassel, Roots can be 
seen on the larger plants. Natural size. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXV.—Branch of tassel showing gradual transition from young plants 
to normal spikelets. Natural size. 
85408—VvoL 12, pr 10—09—4 
