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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. 11. Teosinte. (Photo by L. H. Smith.) 



the seeds protected from animal marauders by husks or glumes. This 

 is again a simplification caused by the loss of a character, as is proved 

 by crossing the ordinary maize varieties with the variety tunicata in 

 which the character still remains. This gives us a grass-like corn with 

 each seed covered — a plant in many ways like teosinte. It still differs 

 from it by but one important and several unimportant characters, and 

 the difference can not be particularly significant, for maize and teosinte 

 cross freely and give fertile hybrids. 



The difference is this: The female or pistillate spike of maize, the 

 part which we call the ear, consists apparently of several two-rowed 



Fig. 12. A Teosinte-Maize Hybrid showing the Dominance of the 

 Teosinte Characters. (Photo by Webber.) 



