to the position of the sessile and potentially pedicellate 
spikelets, the arrangement of spikelets on the ear is ran- 
dom or nearly so. The tissues of the rachis and glumes 
are not strongly indurated. There is no tendency, as in 
many North American varieties, for ears with pairs of 
rows in odd numbers, ten, fourteen, eighteen, etc., to be 
in the minority or for such ears to be twisted. 
This type of ear is fundamentally identical with the 
spikes of certain other species of grasses and like many 
of them is probably derived from a panicle as the result 
of reduction of branches. There is not the slightest evi- 
dence of fusion. There is abundant evidence, however, 
that the ear is derived from a panicle for the central spike 
of the tassel, which is unquestionably the homologue of 
the ear, is still surrounded with basal branches. Indeed 
the tassel is a perfect example of a combination of pan- 
icle and spike and illustrates splendidly the transition 
from one to the other. The change from panicle to spike is 
obviously relatively recent, but whether it is the product 
of domestication, wholly or in part, there is at present 
no way of determining. The fact that the Guarany va- 
riety, which is primitive in certain other characteristics, 
frequently exhibits basal branching of the ear, suggests, 
though it does not prove, that the wild maize with which 
domestication began was at least moderately branched 
in its lateral (probably pistillate) inflorescences. 
This type of ear, it may be said again, differs in no 
single important characteristic from the inflorescences of 
other grasses. True, it usually is wholly pistillate, but 
there are other grass inflorescences, such as the pistillate 
forms of the dioecious species of Monantochloé, Jouvea, 
Buchloé and Eragrostis, which are entirely pistillate. It 
usually has a massive rachis and large caryopses, but 
there are varieties of sorghum which have the rachis 
thicker than the most slender maize cob and the cary- 
[ 69 ] 
