WEATHERWAX: THE EVOLUTION OF MAIZE 317 
and there are several more or less definite varieties of maize 
Fics. 11-13. Normal terminal inflorescences of suckers, having characteristics 
of both the ear and the tassel. 
which do not agree with the general description just given. A 
well-known variation is found in pod corn, each mature grain of 
which is covered by the enlarged 
glumes of the female spikelet. 
Many plants of pod corn have 
perfect or female flowers in their 
tassels and produce fruits there, 
and some of these plants have a 
tendency to become earless; but 
no independent earless variety 
has ever been isolated. Other 
varieties of maize occasionally 
produce female flowers in the 
tassel, probably as a result of 
physiological conditions. It is 
significant that silks produced in 
the tassel are usually fasciated 
like those of the normal female 
flower, but bipartite silks have 
been seen in a few cases. Most 
Fic. 14. A tassel of Gernert’s Branch 
Co 
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female spikes of maize have sterile tips, and these are often re- 
