-6 3 - 



more than their share, and the weaker organs will go to the wall. From 

 this matter oi' food supply we have a general law, which may be stated as 

 follows: 



Living creatures are variable from the amount and quality of their food. 

 And among some orders the limits of this variation are wide. 



It is scarcely necessary for me to go into the fact, that the insects 

 being exposed to more extreme vicissitudes than the larger orders of 

 animal life are much more variable in almost every respect. It will be 

 interesting, however, and it may be instructive in the line of our inquiry 

 to point out some powers of variation in sex in a very common plant, 

 which, while they are very much greater than those of the bee, have some 

 points of striking resemblance. 



Indian Corn is pictured to the unobserving mind, as a plant bear- 

 ing something good to eat at the side; and a tassel on the top. The 

 botanist tells us that the tassel on the top is a male plant, that at the side 

 is a female plant, or perhaps more than one, that all these are joined 

 upon one stalk, and that the something good to eat, is the product of 

 the female plant, fertilized by the pollen of the male. All this is fact as 

 far as it goes; but it gives us no conception of the whole truth. 



On going into the field in bloom, we find that nearly all of the 

 stalks have tassels on the top; they are male plants. In a good field we 

 shall find perhaps half of them with reproductive females at the side, say 

 two good ears of corn to a hill. There are therefore nearly twice as 

 many perfect males as there are of perfect females. We find also, that 

 the undeveloped females are very numerous, from one to half a dozen on 

 a stalk. And a close examination shows that the number of females that 

 become developed is almost entirely a matter of food. Such an investi- 

 gation shows also some plants bearing only a female on the stalk and 

 some that are entirely undeveloped in both sexes. 



Thus in our field of Indian corn we have male stalks, male and fe- 

 male stalks, female stalks, neuter stalks. And the stalks that bear deve- 

 loped male and developed female individuals all have, (a) a male indi- 

 vidual on the top, (b) one, two, or three females at the side, (c) one to 

 six undeveloped females at the side, and possibly with, possibly instead 

 of (c) they may have, (d) one to half a dozen buds and germs of females 

 at the side. 



If, when the corn is ripe, we go with the farmer and gather a basket- 

 ful, we shall invariably find that on each ear there are kernels less per- 

 fectly developed than others, and we shall have every reason to believe 

 that in the basketful there are some kernels that could not reproduce, 

 that some kernels would reproduce, but would, under the most favorable 



