The Story of the Maize Plant 



175 



designates the grass family "Gram- 

 ineae." 



It is well to note that the range of 

 teosinte is given as including Central 

 America. This may seem a minor 

 point, but taken in connection with the 

 area covered by the civilization of the 

 Mayas, it is extremely important to 

 know whether this ancestor of maize 

 existed in their terrtitory. For several 

 years past we have been endeavoring 

 to verify the occurrence of Euchlaena 

 as a wild plant in Central America, but 

 as yet these efforts have been abortive. 

 Until definite information is obtained 

 it seems undesirable to extend the 

 range of this species to include Central 

 America. (See Hitchcock, A. S., Jour. 

 Wash. Acad. Sci., Vol. 12. No. 8, P. 

 205.) 



It is apparent that the author still 

 fails to appreciate the true nature of 

 prophylla. One harldy would have ex- 

 pected a morphologist to overlook the 

 fact that two buds often are developed 

 in the axil of the prophyllum of maize 

 and doubtless the vestiges of these 

 buds always are present. This is all 

 the more surprising in view of the 

 author's predilection for vestigial or- 

 gans. 



The absence of satisfactory morpho- 

 logical evidence of buds at the upper 

 nodes does not seem to suggest to the 

 author the possibility that such buds 

 do not exist. This failure to abide by 

 the morphological rules of his own 

 making is evidenced elsewhere. While 

 it is not wished to stress unduly the 

 fasciation hypothesis of the origin 

 of the ear it seems only fair to the 

 adherents of such an hypothesis to 

 ask why the lack of histological evi- 

 dence for fasciation in the develop- 

 ment of the ear should preclude this 

 explanation when the same lack of 

 evidence is not considered m the case 

 of the normally fasiated stigmas and 

 of conate seeds. 



There are numerous misstatements 

 and generalizations which should be 

 corrected ; thus on page 20 — "Pod corn 

 frequently appears by regressive varia- 



tion in any variety" and on page 117 

 "Functionally perfect flowers are of 

 rare occurrence" and on page 141, 

 "Six-rowed ears have never been 

 known to occur." The first and last 

 of these statements, of course, are not 

 according to the known facts and 

 while the other may be a matter of 

 opinion, there can be little question 

 that the mutations to pod corn are 

 much more rare than the occur*"ence 

 of perfect flowers. 



On page 38 we read "At about this 

 time, or a little later, the last of the 

 food stored in the endosperm is con- 

 sumed and the new plant begins its in- 

 dependent existence." Notwithstand- 

 ing this statement it is extremely 

 doubtful whether a normal germinat- 

 ing maize plant consumes the last of 

 the food stored in the endosperm and 

 indeed the storage of material in the 

 seed in excess of what is normally 

 used is one of the outstanding features 

 of the large-seeded varieties of maize. 



On pages 44-45 it is stated "above 

 the first or second internode wholly 

 above the ground the succeeding ma- 

 ture internodes are thinner and long- 

 er" and on page 57 "In this branch 

 the uppermost internodes are short, 

 and the lower ones progressively long- 

 er — a condition exactly opposite that 

 prevailing in the main culm." We 

 have measured all the internodes on 

 hundreds of maize plants and have 

 found that in a vast majority of varie- 

 ties, including the common commer- 

 cial strains the longest internode is 

 well below the ear and usually is mid- 

 way between the lowest and the upper- 

 most. 



On page 78 "The best known and 

 probably the most destructive disease 

 of maize is smut or brand." This will 

 reassure the growers who may have 

 become alarmed by the root-rot propa- 

 ganda. 



On page 107 the author shows great 

 caution in accepting the hereditary 

 nature of fasciation and the inheri- 

 tance of branched forms of ears is dis- 

 paraged as being nothing more than 



