fact that the fusion of distichous branches (in which the 
spikelets are paired or must become paired to produce 
an ear of maize) should result in ears in which the num- 
ber of ranks of paired spikelets is always even and the 
number of rows of grain is always a multiple of four. 
Thus a fusion of two such spikes or branches would pro- 
duce an ear with four ranks of paired spikelets and eight 
rows of grain; a fusion of three spikes or branches, an ear 
with six ranks of paired spikelets and twelve rows of 
grain, etc. Weatherwax assumes that ears in which the 
number of ranks of paired spikelets is odd and the num- 
ber of rows of grain not a multiple of four (ears with 
ten, fourteen and eighteen rows of grain, for example) 
cannot have been the product of fusion of two-ranked 
spikes. Since such ears do occur Weatherwax concludes 
that the fusion hypothesis is confronted with serious 
mathematical inconsistencies. 
Kempton (10), in an attempt to reconcile these appar- 
ent inconsistencies, has suggested that ears in which the 
number of ranks of paired spikelets is odd may be the 
result of the abortion of a row of paired spikelets or 
the abortion of the pediceled* spikelets in both ranks of 
one of the component branches. Kempton was of the 
opinion that both of these phenomena are of common 
occurrence, but it is now doubtful if either one occurs. 
Weatherwax (19) found no vestiges of the supposedly 
aborted spikelets and Dr. Reeves and I have examined 
numerous ten-rowed ears without finding a trace of them, 
although there is no difficulty in seeing them in both 
teosinte and Tripsacum where normally only one spike- 
let in each pair is functional. 
Kempton (10) also suggested that ears in which the 
* Both members of a pair of pistillate spikelets are actually sessile, 
but one is potentially pediceled and is the homologue of the pediceled 
staminate spikelet. 
[ 39 ] 
