THE GRAINS 149 



and it makes the entire plant, with the exception of 

 the cob, immediately available for stock food. 



Chief Uses. — The chief use of corn is unquestion- 

 ably as food for domestic animals and, as we have 

 just seen, the entire plant may be utilized in this 

 way. The grain is also an important article of 

 human food. It is used in the arts for the manu- 

 facture of starch, of glucose, of oil, and in the prepa- 

 ration of fermented and distilled liquors. 



Botanical Features and Varieties. — Corn, like sugar 

 cane, belongs to the great grass family. It bears 

 staminate flowers on a terminal panicle called tlie 

 tassel, while the pistillate flowers are borne in one 

 or more compact axillary spikes called ears, each of 

 which is covered with a number of closely appressed 

 bracts, the husks. The corn silk consists of the 

 greatly elongated stigmas, one of which runs down 

 to each kernel. The pollen from the tassel falls on 

 these hairlike stigmas and the pollen tube grows 

 down to and fecundates the egg cell located in the 

 immature grain. 



The number of recognized varieties is very great, 

 but they may be grouped under a comparatively few 

 races. The principal of these are the dent corns, 

 the flint corns, the sweet corns, the flour corns, or 

 horse-tooth corns as they are sometimes called, and 

 the pop corns. The dent corns are by far the most 

 important and constitute the great bulk of the corn 

 of commerce. There are many varieties, white, 

 yellow, or red in color. The most typical varieties 

 have white grain and white cobs. The flint corns, as 

 a rule, have a shorter growing season than the dent 



