140 WEATHERWAX: MoRPHOLOGY OF FLOWERS OF ZEA MAys 
is known in nearly all varieties, but Kempton (14, p. I1) is respon- 
sible for the statement that it never occurs in pod corn. It some- 
times occurs that the staminate portion of the ear is not at the 
tip but back some distance, as shown in FIc. 16, where the stami- 
nate portion resembles the central spike of a tassel. At least one 
case has been noted also where a double row of spikelets on an ear 
was replaced for some distance by spikelets that had the structure 
of those usually found in the tassel. 
In the variety of pod corn that I have been growing the tassels 
of most plants produce female flowers, and at maturity the tassel 
is bent sharply downward by the weight of the fruit (Fic. 10). 
Kempton (14, p. 12) and others have noted the same, and the 
former observed that such plants produced no ears. The same 
thing was true for a number of my plants also, but most of them 
produced ears of the podded type. Examination of these tassels 
shows that many of the spikelets have one male and one female 
flower. 
Bisexual flowers similar to the typical grass flower, except in 
the structure of the stigma and some minor points, have been 
found in both the ear and the tassel of pod corn. It is somewhat 
doubtful whether or not the stamens in the ear spikelets of my 
plants produced pollen, but they were of the normal size. In the 
tassel, however, both parts of the perfect flowers were most 
certainly functional. On account of the increased length of the 
glumes in these flowers, however, as in almost all flowers of this 
pod corn, the stamens are not exserted in anthesis. This intro- 
duces a special problem of pollination which has not yet been 
fully investigated. 
he presence of these hermaphrodite flowers in pod corn and 
occasionally in other varieties, and the occurrence of both sexes 
in the same inflorescence but not in the same flower have provided 
the basis of the theory generally accepted that the monoecious 
flowers of the normal maize plant have developed, by the suppres- 
sion of parts, from hermaphrodite flowers borne in tassel-like 
inflorescences by some unknown primitive ancestor. 
Montgomery (3, P. 349) mentions an ear of dent corn that had 
three well-developed stamens with each grain and three small ones 
in the aborted flower. He says further: ‘‘This little abortive 
