152 VARIETIES OF INDIAN CORN. 



towards the west will, in this maize-growing region, pro- 

 bably meet with for the first time. Boys with baskets 

 attend upon the cars at the stopping-places, selling it at 

 so much a quart. Indian corn, beneath a thin but double 

 epidermis, consists of a semi-transparent, hard, horny, or 

 flinty part of a yellow colour ; within this, of a white, soft, 

 opaque, starchy part 5 and within all, at the base of the 

 seed, of the germ or cTdt^ as it is called in America. The 

 horny part consists of starch, of oil, which under the 

 microscope can be seen in globules, and of a proportion 

 of vegetable albumen.* The soft white opaque part is 

 chiefly starch, and the chit almost entirely albumen. 

 This is prettily shown by cutting off with a knife the 

 outer part of a grain of Indian corn, and applying to the 

 pared surface a drop of a solution of Iodine: the soft 

 white part will become entirely deep blue ; the horny 

 part blue only in streaks or patches, while the chit will 

 be scarcely affected. The substance thus turned blue is 

 starch. If another grain of corn be touched in the same 

 manner with a solution of verdigris, (acetate of copper,) 

 or of blue vitriol, (sulphate of copper,) only the chit will 

 be coloured blue — showing that, as a whole, it differs 

 entirely from either of the other parts. 



But the cutting of the seed across, and especially if 

 the cut surface be coloured by the application of any of 

 these solutions, shows that the relative size and position 

 of these several parts varies very much with the variety 

 of corn we examine. In some the horny part is large, as 

 in the varieties known by the names of brown, Canada, 

 rice, and pop corns ; while In others, as in the flat 

 southern and in the Tuscarora, the white starchy part 

 predominates. In some, as in the pop and Canada corn, 

 the horny part entirely surrounds the soft starchy 

 portion ; in others, as in the flat southern, it forms an 



* Nearly the same thing as the white of egg. 



