CORN STRUCTURE 



its qualities from the pollen-bearing parent as well as from 

 the mother plant. 



It is this second union of double fer- 

 tilization, which occurs in some plants, 

 that enables the pollen of a yellow variety 

 of dent corn to produce yellow kernels a 

 few weeks after fertilizing the silks of a 

 white variety. This is because the yellow 

 quality has been given by the male par- 

 ent to the endosperm, or main part of 

 the grain, which color shows as yellow 

 through the transparent hull or bran 

 that covers the grain. 



91. The ear. The ear varies greatly 

 in length, diameter, and number of rows 

 of grain. Among ordinary or dent varie- 

 ties, the usual number of rows ranges 

 between twelve and twenty-four, four- 

 teen to eighteen being most common in 

 productive varieties. A good ear of corn 

 should bear about a thousand grains. 

 The number of rows is always even, a 

 fact which has a satisfactory explanation 

 in the structure and evolution of the cob 

 and pistils. (See Hunt's " Cereals in 

 America," p. 148.) 



The best ear is one having a cob not 

 extremely small, since this would not 

 allow a sufficient number of rows. Neither should the 

 cob be very large, since this tends to late maturity and 

 to the rotting of the ear in a wet fall. 



FIG. 38. A WELL- 

 PROPORTIONED 

 EAR OP A HARD 

 YELLOW VARIETY. 



