HARVESTING EARS. 



132. The reader will now refer to Plate III, 

 on the opposite page, and to the following 

 description appertaining to it, as I come to the 

 several things, the representations of which it 



contains : a, is a transverse section of an 



ear, of perfect growth, natural size. The figure 

 exhibits the centre or pith of the cobb, hollow, 

 in a circular form, and about one eighth of 

 an inch in diameter ; the solid part of the cobb, 

 in the form of a hexagon, al^out one third or 

 nearly half an inch in diameter ; six stems, com- 

 mencing or having their base upon the circle of 

 pithj and, almost immediately from the base, 

 divided or branching into two, in which double 

 form they grow, each issuing from one of the sides 

 of the solid part of the cobb, and then pushing 

 through a fine husky substance of very slight 

 texture ; the grains growing on the extremities 

 of the stems, being embedded in and wedged 

 tight by these husks; the spear, or germ, to each 

 g^i-ain is plainly perceivable on the side, with the 

 point or eye of the germ near to the surface 

 of the grain, from which points start the indi- 

 vidual threads or silks, which, collected at 

 the end, as in Plate I, are termed " the silk :" 



b and c, are two grains, corresponding ivith 



the foregoing in proportion, rubbed from the 

 cobb, and exhibited on both sides : d, a per- 

 fect ear, full length, on a scale diminished from 

 the original : e, the cobb, proportionate to the 



