The Courtship of the Corn 235 



sheath slips back, and a stiff spike of staminate flowers rears 

 above the growing corn. 



Each blossom along that spike is laden with grains of liv- 

 ing pollen. Eighteen million of these pollen grains have been 

 counted on a single corn phallus. The energy contained in a 

 single corn tassel is beyond man's present mechanics to com- 

 pute. 



These eighteen million pollen grains have developed in the 

 anthers of the flowers according to an exquisitely just law. 

 Each grain had its origin in a "mother cell" containing ten 

 chromosomes. There came a moment when, obediently, this 

 "mother cell" divided itself; dividing also its original chromo- 

 somes equally between the two new cells, five and five alike. 

 Nor was this all. The two cells then divided themselves, form- 

 ing four immature pollen grains. But in this second division 

 the chromosomes followed a different pattern. This time each 

 chromosome divided itself, forming twenty out of the original 

 ten, and grouping themselves in fives in the four pollen grains. 



The pollen grains contain something more than the rod- 

 like chromosomes which carry the plant's hereditary character- 

 istics. Each grain has a nucleus. This too, in its turn, receives 

 a signal to divide itself in two in order to perform two sepa- 

 rate and distinct functions of procreation. Last of all, one of 

 these two new nuclei divides to form two sperm nuclei which 

 are genetically identical. A microscope reveals these two 

 sperms, shaped like minute crescents, in the mature pollen 

 grain. 



During these adolescent changes in the male body of the 

 corn, changes equally dramatic have been going on in the 

 female body that is, the ear. All along the immature ear are 

 "mother cells" from each one of which grows a filament of 

 fine silk. These "mother cells," which are to perform a female 

 function, obey the same law of growth which compelled the 

 pollen cells to divide first reductionally, and then equationally. 

 Their ten chromosomes, too, fall into the same pattern as the 

 chromosomes in the pollen. Ultimately, where there was one 



