HS 



H o irr IC'U LTU RK 



Miirrh 1)>. l!Mk 



the world to oros- ami tluMvfore liiic for ln-^'iiimTs. 

 Ilaviiif; pot our two strains to breed fairly true. \\v 

 U'niii the oxiMTiiiu'iit. Iiv selecting tlio middle ;.'ruiiis 

 from Uie l»est ears of eaili kind, and still further selwi 

 ing the finest from among the lot. The next year, 

 when |>lantin<; time arrives, and with it liujie and thai 

 youthful feeling; so dear to an old man, we slmiild |>]a<i- 

 the seed that is to |>roduoe the plants to he used u 

 fejnaloti in hills, eaiii of wliieh will have four surround 

 inp hills, containing seed from which jihints will grow. 

 to be used as nuiles, the ohjeet being to supply the plant- 

 to be used as females with plenty of pollen from tli. 

 surrounding males. Hcfore the plants attain their full 

 height, the huds which w ill form the male flowers emergi 

 a* a bunch from the leaves at the toj) of the plant, n- 

 shown in Figure 1. When in this stage tho.se on tlic 

 plants to be used as females must be removed. This is 

 easily done by grasping the Imnch and pulling gently and 

 (irmly toward the sky. breaking the stem but not inju.i- 

 ing the growth of the ])lant. When the plants to be 

 used as males are fully grown in height, the male flow- 

 ers are at the top and terminate the plant. They are 

 shown oi)en in Figure 2. life size. Notice how abun- 

 dant they are, more than a hundred on a plant. Each 

 flower reveals, on expanding, little bag-s, well displayed 

 in the half-tone illustration. Each is tightly packed 

 with rough, spherical grains of pollen, the male fertiliz- 

 ing agents. When rii)e they become detached from the 

 inside of the sacks, which open at thetr lower ends to 

 allow them to escape. ^Mien vievred in cross-section 

 the sacks resemble a figure S. and thi^ tonn taken in 

 connection with the fine hair-like 'ttifeads from wliicli 

 they are suspended, allows the genii' -i luvath of air to 

 impart to them a trembling motion; very pleasing' to 

 watch in a hot and breathless day... Scott wrote of the 

 "trembling aspen," yet its leaves a«e immobile in com- 



Figure -i 



Figure 2 



■])arison. By the way did you ever examine the stem of 

 an a.sj)en leaf to leani why it is set in motion by a gentle 

 breeze? 



Figure 3 is a photomicrograph fif the lower end of 

 one of these little pollen sacks, in the stage when the 

 pollen is ripe, tlie sack open, some of the pollen escaped, 

 and others ready to fall out with the next breeze. We 

 appear to be looking at the spheres of pollen through 

 an open net. This is an optical delusion. We are ob- 

 serving them through a continuous transparent tissue 

 made up of many rells who.se walls give the appearance 

 "f a net. 



Female Flowers — Tliese are located on the cob, each 

 developing into a kernel of com, if fertilized by a pollen 

 sphere. From the tip of each arises a long transparent 

 tlireail. When these emerge from the bunch of leaves 

 that will fonn the husk; they collectively form the silk, 

 shown in this stage in Figure 4. There are some odd 

 features about this. In other common flowers, the 

 corresponding organ is much shorter in proportion to 

 other jiarts, and thickened at the base; while each 



