146 THE CEREALS IN AMERICA 



best hold the ear from drooping. Thus the cuhn of the branch 

 (now called the shank) has become a succession of nodes with 

 short internodes. Each node still bears the sheath of the leaf, 

 the blade being much reduced in size or aborted. This collec- 

 tion of leaf sheaths is called the husk. The branch has been 

 telescoped. (211.) 



215. The Tassel. — The tassel is a spreading panicle gen- 

 erally a foot or more in length in field varieties, with branches 

 usually six to ten inches long. The spikelets extending from 

 base to tip of each branch (rachis) are arranged in clusters of 

 two to four, one usually pediceled, the others sessile, or all 

 sessile, the clusters often overlapping. The empty or outer 

 glumes, about equal, three-eighths to one-half inch long, are 

 stouter and harder than the flowering glume and palea. The 

 latter are about equal and shorter than the outer glumes. They 

 are hyaline and much thinner. Each flower bears three stamens. 

 The anthers are large, nearly as long as the flowering glume. 

 They are attached to the filament on one side near the lower 

 end. 



Lazenby estimates that 45,000 pollen grains are produced for 

 each ovule in dent maize.^ According to another estimate, an 

 average maize plant has seventy-t^vo hundred stamens, contain- 

 ing about eighteen million pollen grains. Assuming two thou- 

 sand ovules to a plant, there would be nine thousand pollen 

 grains to an ovule.^ It is held that the staminate flowers usually 

 mature before the carpellate, but they may mature at the same 

 time or later. 



216. The Silk. — The style, commonly known as the silk, 

 arises at the summit of the carpel. In certain varieties, as pop 

 maize, the scar may be plainly seen on the top of the ripened 

 grain. Since the end of all silks, for the silk to be effective, 

 must protrude beyond the surrounding husk, the silk may be a 



1 Proc. Soc. Prom. Agr. Sc. (1898). 

 4 Sargent: Com Plants, p. 44. 



