PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



LIBR 



Delaware County Institute of Science new 



BOTAl 



: GAUi 



Vol. VI, No. 2 January, 191 i 



AN UNUSUAL FORM OF MAIZE. 



BY JOHN W. HARSHBERGER, PH. D. 



The specimen of corn described below was grown on the 

 premises of Dr. Horace Howard Furness, of Wallingford, 

 Delaware county, Pa., in 1910, from seed obtained from the 

 field corn of James Miller, whose farm is in the neighbor- 

 hood. An examination of it shows a centrally placed axis, 

 or cob, which is a continuation of the main stem of the plant. 

 This axis is about six inches long, with twelve rows of pistil- 

 late flowers, that had already begun to mature their fruits 

 (corn kernels, or caryopses) which are somewhat pointed at 

 the extremity, bearing a single thread of silk. Each spikelet 

 in this flower cluster bears only one perfect flower ; the other 

 one is rudimentary, and, like ordinary field corn, is not repre- 

 sented. The terminal part of this central ear, or spike, is 

 occupied by about twenty to twenty-five male spikelets, each 

 spikelet of two flowers, and each flower with three normally 

 developed stamens. Several of the developing grains on one 

 side of the central ear are smutted with the smut fungus, 

 Ustilago maydis. Arising from the base of the central axis 

 are four other axes, or ears, which are more slender than the 

 central one, and three of them have the separate spikelets 

 arranged in a two-ranked (distichous) manner. The fourth 

 one is irregularly three-ranked, suggesting at its tip a two- 

 ranked condition . The lower spikelets of these more slender 



