Minnesota Plant Life. 



207 



from the pistillate, just as in the cat-tails. It is so with the 

 Indian corn, where all the staminate flowers normally develop 

 in the area known as the tassel, where all the pistillate flowers are 

 gathered together on a thick stem and form the ear. In the 

 Indian corn the process which connects the stigma with the 

 ovary is long and slender and is known as the silk. Surround- 

 ing the cluster of pistillate flowers on their thick stem or cob 

 is a group of somewhat modified protective leaves known as the 

 husks of the corn. Since the plant depends upon the wind 

 for carrying the pollen-spores to the stigma, the silk threads 

 protrude in a 

 little tuft at the 

 end of the ear. 

 By selectin g 

 ears which have 

 not yet opened 

 to expose their 

 silk and inclos- 

 ing them in a 

 gutta-p e r c h a 

 bag it would be 

 possible to pre- 

 vent the devel- 

 opment of the 

 kernels. 



A number of 

 cultivated vari- 

 eties of Indian corn are recognized, differing in minor peculiar- 

 ities. Hybrids between different varieties are interesting and 

 sometimes red and white corn are crossed ; in that instance tinted 

 kernels may develop upon the cob. Or if red, white and black 

 varieties are grown together in the same field some kernels may 

 be fecundated by male plants arising from one kind of pollen 

 while others depend upon males developed from other pollen, 

 so that the ears contain kernels of each color. 



Wild rice. Another grass which is of interest from its im- 

 portance as an economic plant among the aborigines of the 

 state, is the wild rice or Indian rice. The Chippewas call this 

 plant manotnin and gather it in the autumn of the year for food. 



FIG. 87. Indian corn in the shock. After photograph by Williams. 



