BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Campringe, Massacnusetts, Aucusr 18, 1959 Voi. 19, No. 1 
THE PHYTOMER IN RELATION TO 
FLORAL HOMOLOGIES IN THE 
AMERICAN MAYDEAE 
BY 
Watton C. GALINAT 
THE structure of the inflorescences in the American 
Maydeae (maize or Zea Mays .., teosinte or Zea mexi- 
cana (Schrad.) Reeves and Mang.', and T'ripsacum spp.) 
may be the result of developmental modifications to a 
repetitious pattern of organs, the ‘‘phytomer,’’ which is 
basic throughout the entire plant. The parts of this pat- 
tern, as described later, have been recognized in vegeta- 
tive form as an internode, a leaf, and an axillary bud 
(Gray, 1879 and others), and, recently (Galinat, 1956), 
as another organ, the prophyll. 
If the phytomer and its components have a floral man- 
ifestation, then their basic homologies might be revealed 
by anatomical comparisons within any plant and with 
close relatives. Such comparisons have been successful 
in demonstrating the evolutionary development and 
homologies of certain floral structures such as carpels, 
compound ovaries and inferior ovaries. 
We have already had some such studies in maize. The 
arrangement of large and small bundles has been de- 
'This new name was proposed in 1942 and has been used regu- 
larly by its authors in a recent series in these Leaflets (Vol. 18, Nos. 
7, 8, 9 and 10). 
[1] 
