THE INDIAN CORN 



161 



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attached at one side of the style and which seems to be an 

 extremely long stigma. The silk projects beyond the husks ; 

 all along its surface are hairs, which are most numerous near 

 the tip. The cluster of stigmas or silks hanging from the 

 end of the ear thus 

 furnishes an excellent 

 means for catching and 

 holding the pollen 

 grains. The flowers at 

 the base of the ear are 

 the oldest and first to 

 mature, and therefore 

 the kernels in this part 

 of the ear develop first. 

 183. Staminate Flow- 

 ers. The tassel is a 

 much-branched cluster 

 of staminate flowers. 

 The final branches of 

 the cluster are spikelets, 

 corresponding to the 

 spikelets of the ear. 

 Each spikelet of the 

 tassel (Fig. 101, A) also 

 bears two (or occasion- 

 ally more) flowers, as well as several chaffy bracts or scales. 

 A flower consists of three stamens, a rudimentary pistil, 

 and two small, swollen, leaf -like structures that perhaps 

 correspond to sepals. Each stamen is composed of a fila- 

 ment which in the mature flower is long and drooping, 

 and a long anther which has four pollen sacs. Since there 

 are many staminate flowers in a " tassel," the amount of 

 pollen is very great ; it has been estimated that as many 

 as 18,000,000 pollen grains may be produced by a single 

 corn plant. 



FIG. 101. A, a spikelet from the 

 "tassel" of the Indian corn, bearing two 

 staminate flowers; a, one of the bracts; 

 b, filament; c, anther. B, a lengthwise 

 section through an unopened staminate 

 flower; d and e, bracts; /, filament, now 

 short, but which will become much longer 

 when the flower opens ; g, the rudimentary 

 pistil; h, one of the two small sepal-like 

 parts. B after Weatherwax. 



