Morphology of the flowers of Zea Mays 
PAUL WEATHERWAX 
(WITH PLATES 5 AND 6 AND FOUR TEXT FIGURES) 
The structure of the maize plant presents a series of problems 
of a very special nature. Many of these have been thoroughly 
worked out from a purely morphological point of view, but it need 
hardly be said that the mass of economic information about corn 
almost obscures the part that may be considered purely botanical. 
Of the special morphology of the plant probably no part has 
received less thorough treatment, in proportion to its importance, 
than that pertaining to its floral parts. It is true that many 
studies have dealt in a way with this phase of the subject, but it 
has almost always been in connection with some more extended 
study and has, consequently, been superficially treated. The 
result is that one looks in vain through botanical literature for a 
complete and well-illustrated discussion of the structure of the 
maize flower. 
The investigations upon which this work is based have extended 
over a period of almost two years, during which time representa- 
tives of all the six subspecies of Zea Mays have been under observa- 
tion to a greater or less extent. The greater part of the work 
has been done upon different varieties of sweet corn, but the other 
five types have also been examined, especially where any variation 
from the sweet corn type of flower was apparent. All the avail- 
able literature has been consulted, and most of the points made 
therein have been verified. 
It is not intended here to present a group of facts that are 
entirely new. The available data, widely scattered, have been 
collected, and some changes and additions have been made, 
together with an attempt to illustrate fully wherever an illustration 
will emphasize a point or convey the meaning more clearly. 
I desire to express my obligations to Professor D. M. Boteer 
for valuable suggestions and criticisms pertaining to this work, 
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