248 ANALYSES OF MAIZE. 



It appears from the foregoing analyses, that we have the extreme limits in the amount 

 of starch and dextrine in the Sweet, Tuscarora, and Calico varieties of maize : in the 

 former, it is reduced to the lowest limit ; in the Calico, it attains its maximum of starch. 

 In the Sweet corn we find the maximum of dextrine, and in the other two only an ordi- 

 nary amount, probably not an extreme. 



In the presence of this large quantity of dextrine in Sweet corn we find the true reason of 

 its shrinking so much, or of its assuming so much the appearance of a green or unripe grain. 

 Dextrine, which, though it resembles very closely a gum, still differs essentially from true 

 gum, of which Gum arabic is a type ; but it swells when moistened, and shrinks again like 

 gum when dried. A familiar example of shrinking and expanding is found in the gum 

 which exudes from cherry or peach trees : in a wet day, it is four or five times as bulky as in 

 a dry. So Sweet corn, when recently gathered, is full, plump, and with its skin distended : 

 when it is dried, it shrinks, from the contraction of its gummy matter, the dextrine within 

 the kernel. Probably too all the dent grains, or varieties of maize which exhibit a dent 

 or depression upon the exterior, contain more dextrine than those which remain full and 

 distended. The Ohio Dent, it will be observed, contains 5*40 per centum of dextrine, an 

 amount exceeding that of the common yellow varieties of maize. It adds to the interest 

 of the subject, to find the extremes of starch and dextrine growing or borne upon the same 

 ear ; thus proving the correctness of the opinion of Dr. Jackson, already referred to, with 

 respect to the appropriation of nutriment by each individual kernel ; for we find, upon 

 analysis, that the difference of composition is as great as that of any two varieties culti- 

 vated at a distance and upon different soils. Indeed the facts are more striking in the case 

 of these varieties, inasmuch as they obtain their nutriment from the same identical store- 

 house, or the same system of vessels. It all goes to prove, too, that each individual kernel 

 modifies its food after its own manner ; and it is this power which gives it its individuality. 



