Rural School Leaflet. 105 i 



The true roots of the com plant penetrate the soil rather deeply, 

 but they are hardly able to hold firm a stalk so slender and tall as that 

 of the corn when the wind blows fiercely against it. Hence all about 

 the base of the stalk are certain roots, which we call brace-roots, the 

 office of which is to hold the stalk erect. 



Each fertile cornstalk has two kinds of blossoms. Those that bear 

 the pollen appear at the tip of the stalk; we call them corn "tassels." 

 These consist merely of anthers filled with pollen. The other flowers 

 of the com are those that develop the seed and are the pistillate flowers, 

 which we call the ears of corn. They consist of many little white ovules 

 set upon a central stalk or cob, and each ovule has a long style, which 

 we call the com silk. Very delicately are these pistillate flowers of the 

 com wrapped about with leaves, which are changed to the soft 

 protective clothing called the husks. Each white ovule thrusts its 

 thread of silk upward until its tip pushes out beyond the top of the 

 husks, and each silk is tipped with a stigma, which is ready to receive 

 the pollen that falls upon it from the tassels of its own stalk or is blown 

 upon it from the tassels of other corn plants. If one of these ovules 

 fails to receive pollen at the stigmatic tip of its long silken style, it does 

 not develop into a kernel of corn, and the ear will then be imperfect. 

 Such undeveloped kernels we say are "blasted." These ovules are 

 set upon the stem or "cob" in twin rows; thus each row is double, 

 being made up of pairs of ovules. If the different varieties of corn 

 are planted one near another, the pollen from one kind may be carried 

 by the wind over to the ears of the other kinds, and the result will be 

 a mixture of two varieties upon the same cob. 



The ears are borne at the joints or nodes ; and where the ear presses 

 against it, the stalk is grooved to hold it more snugly. The husks show 

 plainly that they are modified leaves, in the following ways: The husk 

 has the same structure as the leaf; the outside husks are green and, 

 therefore, do the work of leaves. The husk often changes to leaf-shape 

 at the tip of the ear, thus showing that the husk itself is that part of 

 the leaf which normally clasps the stalk. As a matter of fact, the ear 

 of corn is on a branch stalk which has been much shortened so 

 that the nodes are very close together and the leaves, therefore, come 

 off close together. By stripping the husks back, one by one, from 

 the outside stiff green leaf structure to the inner s.talk, the papery 

 wrapping for the seed may be seen in all its stages. 



Formerly seed corn was selected according to the following rule: 

 "The ear should be of good length, cylindrical rather than pointed, 

 the cob firm and well filled from, butt to tip with kernels uniformly 



