tury has persisted almost undiminished to the botanist 
of the twentieth. ‘True, the modern student recognizes 
that Lyte’s description of maize is somewhat lacking in 
accuracy from the technical botanical standpoint. Maize 
does not, as Lyte believed, bear its seeds ‘‘cleane contrarie 
from the place whereas the Floures grow’’ and therefore 
it is not, as he contended, ‘‘against the nature and kinds 
of all other plants.’’ Nevertheless, the botanist of today 
would not deny that maize is indeed a ‘‘marvellous 
strange plant,’’ and he would unhesitatingly agree with 
Lyte that its uniqueness lies in its inflorescences, partic- 
ularly in the pistillate inflorescence, the ear. 
In its general vegetative characteristics maize does not 
differ essentially from other grasses especially the larger 
cultivated species; its affinity to sugar cane and the sor- 
ghums, for example, is easily recognized. But nowhere 
among the Gramineae, indeed nowhere in the Plant 
Kingdom, is there a fruit which in its external aspects 
at least seems to be more than remotely comparable to 
the ear of maize. It is quite understandable, therefore, 
that the ear of maize has been the subject of numerous 
observations, investigations and conjectures. Nor is it 
surprising that the problem of its origin and morpholog- 
ical nature has remained to a large extent unsolved. 
This paper, despite the unqualified language of its 
title, does not presume to present a final solution to the 
problem of the origin and nature of the ear of maize. 
Botanical problems of this kind are seldom susceptible 
of complete and definitive solutions. However, in the 
course of extensive studies of maize-teosinte hybrids and 
of hybrids of pod corn with a peculiar variety of maize 
obtained from the Guarany Indians of Paraguay, a num- 
ber of interesting phenomena have been encountered 
which appear to shed new light upon the problem of the 
maize ear. Before considering the new facts, it seems de- 
[ B34 | 
