The development of the spikelets of Zea Mays 
PAUL WEATHERWAX 
(WITH PLATE 23 AND THIRTY-THREE TEXT FIGURES) 
In another publication (8) a description has been given of the 
flowers of maize, in which the chief emphasis was laid upon the 
more conspicuous floral features at the time of anthesis. The 
writer’s present purpose is to consider the two types of spikelet 
from the standpoint of development. 
A number of articles have touched upon this subject inciden- 
tally, but in no case completely, having in nearly every case 
something else as their main purpose. True (7) has given a de- 
scription of the formation of the pistil and the ovule in so far as this 
is of help in explaining the development of the caryopsis. Poin- 
dexter (6) gives a preliminary report on some work of the same 
kind with corn, but, if the work has ever been completed and pub- 
lished in full, I have no knowledge of it. Guignard’s investigations 
on double fertilization in maize added some information, but his 
paper (3) naturally does not describe fully the development of the 
spikelets, and it is not illustrated. Golinski (2), basing his work 
upon Poa annua and Triticum vulgare, has given the most com- 
prehensive treatment that I have been able to find of floral de- 
velopment in the grasses; this includes a good account of the 
literature on the subject up to that time. No reports that I 
have investigated have taken into account the development of the 
various rudimentary organs of the spikelets. 
During the last four years I have had under observation in one 
way or another more than a hundred varieties of maize, which 
have been received from many parts of North and South America 
and may be considered a fair representation of the species. Of 
course, not all of these have been examined in detail, but any 
variety that seemed to be different from the typical in floral 
development was made the subject of special study, until the 
nature and significance of the variation were determined. Monoe- 
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