Husks 
Like the cobs and stalks, the husks, a total of 219 
pieces, showed an evolutionary sequence with respect to 
size, the earlier ones being on the average shorter than 
the later ones. 
Tassels 
An amazingly large number of tassels, tassel branches, 
and tassel fragments, 8099 specimens in all, were found 
among the vegetal remains. There is great variation 
among these; the later ones are indistinguishable from 
those of modern races of corn; some of the earlier ones 
have smaller spikelets. Although some students of maize 
(Anderson and Cutler, 1942) consider the tassel to be an 
especially useful organ in classifying maize, we have not 
yet been able to discover any clear-cut, diagnostic char- 
acters which will allow us to assign the tassels, as we have 
the cobs, to recognized races. We are, however, preserv- 
ing all the specimens of tassels in the hope that some 
future student of prehistoric maize may see in them 
more than we have so far been able to discern. 
The most puzzling aspects of the tassels is why they 
should have been preserved at all. Perhaps young tassels 
still containing their anthers served as a source of food. 
The ancient peoples who occupied this cave seem to have 
led a precarious existence with respect to their food sup- 
ply and they chewed, presumably for the sugar they 
contained, a great variety of plants and plant parts. One 
of the specimens among the quids is undoubtedly that 
of the chewed young tassel since partly chewed staminate 
glumes can be identified in it. Also, we now know that 
corn pollen is rich not only in a number of amino acids 
but also in vitamins and minerals. Anthers filled with 
ripe pollen may be veritable little vitamin-mineral cap- 
sules and may have supplied some much needed elements 
to the diet. However, the majority of the prehistoric 
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