100 



weighed fifty-six times as much as the smallest. The fruits of most 

 varieties are naked, except for the well-known covering of husks, but 

 there is a variation from this in the podded types, each grain of which 

 has a separate covering composed of the enlarged glumes and palets. 



Still further illustrations of ordinary variability might be mentioned, 

 but these will suffice. Besides these, there are some less common varia- 

 tions — sometimes termed mutations and sometimes reversions — which add 

 interest to our investigations but complicate our classifications. A few 

 examples may serve as illustrations. The production of male elements in 

 female inflorescences or female elements in male inflorescences is of com- 

 mon occurrence, and varieties breeding true to these characteristics have, 

 in some instances, been isolated. Emerson has a variety whose leaves 

 have no ligules, and another — a dwarf variety — whose ears bear her- 

 maphrodite flowers. Gernert has isolated a constant strain whose ear is 

 a loose panicle. 



The difficulty at the bottom of any attempt to classify the varieties 

 of maize is in the perplexing lack of correlation between these variant 

 characteristics. Some authorities maintain that definite correlations do 

 exist, and others are as confident that they are almost if not quite inde- 

 pendent of one another. The merits of either argument is irrelevant to 

 our present consideration. That certain physical correlations do exist 

 is accepted without argument, but all the genetic correlations that have 

 ever been discovered ai-e of little avail in classification. If the various 

 characters had a tendency to remain in groups affording rigid types, a 

 basis for classification would be provided; but, in a practical way, it 

 seems possible to combine in a single plant or to separate at will any 

 two characteristics which are not connected in any physical way, allelo- 

 morphs of course being excepted. 



Pure botanists, as well as those prompted chiefly by a utilitarian 

 motive, have taken their turn at the problem, and many articles have 

 been published by experiment stations and other institutions. Without 

 going into details, we might analyze the principles employed and see 

 what progress has been made. 



I have made no attempt at a thorough investigation of the tribula- 

 tions through which the maize plant originally passed in getting itself 

 named. Suffice it to say that all that we usually call maize or Indian 

 corn passes technically under the name Zea Mays L., the generic root 



