86 ' INDIAN CORN. 



and the product of single ears is about five ounces on 

 a general average, though occasionally reaching over 

 a pound. The dimensions of the ear range, according 

 to the variety of grain, from less than two inches in 

 length in some of the dwarf varieties, to over sixteen 

 inches in the largest, and sometimes reaching, in the 

 gourd-seed variety, more than half that number of 

 inches in circumference. 



From the extremity of each ear flows out a cluster 

 of soft and silk-like fibres falling like drapery over the 

 husks. These little threads are charged with one of 

 the most important functions in the whole economy of 

 the plant. Each fibre proceeds from a separate grain, 

 and every grain on the ear has a fibre to represent 

 it. The Farina fecundans is a fine, light, powdery 

 substance dislodged by the wind from the flowering 

 tassel that crowns the stalk. This powder or pollen, 

 descending from the tassel, lights upon the silken 

 drapery of the ear, and the rudimental grains are 

 thereby fertilized. In the absence of either fibre or 

 pollen, or even in the failure of their contact, the re- 

 sult would be, not an ear of corn, but a naked cob. 



How curious and inscrutable is this recondite pro- 

 cess ! How full of mystery indeed are all the pro- 

 cesses of vegetation ; and how humiliating to the tow- 

 ering faculties of man to reflect, that though his mind 

 may range at will through infinite space, measuring 

 spheres and orbits and periods of revolution with 

 amazing accuracy, penetrating sidereal systems on the 

 confines of creation, and aspiring to embrace the uni- 

 verse in its grasp ; yet when he walks abroad in the 



