MAIZE— KEMPTON 407 



of patience and of plant genius went into its formation. The American 

 Indian molded his plant material to a higher degree of perfection than 

 the plant domesticators of the Old World did their cereals, possibly 

 because his interests were not divided between plants and animals. 

 Whatever the secret of his success, he created the world's most highly 

 developed grain, and that his task was well done is proved by the 

 wealth added annually by his creation not only in the New World but 

 in the Old World as well. 



Since the occupation of the Americas by the Europeans no real 

 change has been made in corn except to discard the gaudy colors of the 

 seeds and to establish a greater uniformity by the preservation of the 

 best of the Indian's product. True, the dent type of corn which forms 

 the basis of our Corn Belt varieties probably has arisen through hy- 

 bridization of the flint and gourd seed types, the latter known to the 

 Indians as She com. We have not even modified the Indian's cultural 

 system of growing the plants in hills though we have adapted his 

 system to our machines. 



With the stimulus to experimental heredity that came at the begin- 

 ning of the century, on the rediscovery of Mendel's principles, com 

 rapidly assumed a leading role as a subject ideally suited for the study 

 of inheritance in plants. 



Had the Indian creators of corn anticipated such studies they 

 hardly could have fashioned a more satisfactory plant. Controlled 

 pollinations are made with the greatest of ease because of the separa- 

 tion of the sexes, the complete receptiveness of the stigmas over their 

 entire length, and the vast quantities of pollen produced by a single 

 plant. Common grocer's paper bags and string are the only really 

 essential technical equipment necessary to embark upon the fascinat- 

 ing analysis of the transmission of traits from one generation to the 

 next. Of course, the experts have added frills to this equipment 

 chiefly as a means of labor saving in the interests of greater speed and 

 better controlled pollinations. Not only is the technic of crossing most 

 simple but the number of offspring obtained from a single pollination 

 reaches as many as a thousand or more, a very great advantage for 

 studies of this nature. 



Added to the advantages of numerous offspring there is the ad- 

 ditional feature that the seeds came supphed with numerous readily 

 classified characters to which may be added a host of seedling traits. 

 The possibility of obtaining numerous progeny from a single mating 

 embracing many readily classified characters almost offsets the one 

 great disadvantage of but a single generation in a year. By the time 

 the characters already awaiting study had been analyzed, the amazing 

 corn plant had obligingly provided a host of new mutations untU at 

 the present time the inheritance of some 350 genes is known and the 

 end is not in sight. The flexibility of this plant is nothing short of 



