130 WEATHERWAX: MORPHOLOGY OF FLOWERS OF ZEA MAYS 
and outside the triangular area to which the stamens and rudi- 
mentary pistil are attached, are the lodicules (Fic. 2 and TEXT 
FIG, 1): 
The immature stamens have short, stiff, and rather fleshy fila- 
ments, which become long, thin, and flexible in anthesis, allowing 
the anthers to hang well below the rest of the spikelet (compare FIG. 
1 with Fic. 2 and with Text Fic. 2). The 
arrangement of the stamens in the flower 
seems to have nothing to do with the posi 
tion that they will occupy in anthesis, all 
— G three sometimes falling from one side of the 
per a spikelet, or two from one side and one from 
; \ the other as determined by external con- 
\ ditions. The immature anther has four 
\ loculi, which later form two ‘‘cells.” The 
Wi .. A 
i anther cells open by short slits and allow 
ll an the pollen to sift out (Fic. 1). 
| The thick, fleshy lodicules do not show 
the scale-like structure that often charac 
terizes them in other grasses. Along the 
top of each there is a deep, rounded groove 
: with irregular sides. The lodicule is well 
; ad 7__..3 supplied with vascular tissue, transvers€ 
sections showing ten or twelve relatively 
ee aide es oe large, well-distributed strands (TEXT ah 
tion of staminate spikelet I). As the flower matures, the lodicu 
of Country Gentleman increase in size and push back the lemma 
Sweet corn, X15. G, glume; and glume, thus opening the spikelet. 
Vie pore a my In the literature examined, the he 
lemma; A, dorsal anther; mention of a pistil in a male flower 15 y 
P, rudimentary pistil; J, Baillon (4, p. 325) and Bentham and Hook- 
joint of rachilla. ee (5, p. II 14), both of whom, however; ae 
that it is not present. They treat the normal flower as bes 
wholly staminate in structure as well as in function; but 
rudimentary pistil, a very inconspicuous body, to be sure, has 
been found in every staminate flower that I have examined: 
Its development has not yet been worked out; but it is know? 
that long before anthesis its growth stops, and, during the greater | 
v- 
