CORN OR MAIZE 



39 



botanists and agronomists. Corn has been successfully 

 crossed with teosinte and the progeny resembles both 

 parents. From the study of these interesting variations 

 Professor Montgomery has explained the origin of the 

 corn plant in the following way : 

 The ancestors of the corn 

 plant were probably plants hav- 

 ing many branches like teosinte, 

 and were the result of a cross 

 of teosinte on some similar 

 plant, or the progeny of a sport 

 of teosinte crossed with the 

 common form. In either case 

 the original corn plant had 

 branches coming from the axils 

 of the leaves. At the end of 

 these branches were tassels 

 similar to those found on field 

 corn. They differed from the 

 corn tassel in that both male 

 and female flowers were pro- 

 duced, and after fertilization 

 grains developed. Thus the 

 occasional plant that we find 

 in a field of corn having grains 

 in the tassel is a reversion to 

 the original form. At first 

 both male and female flowers 

 were produced in the tassel of each branch. But the 

 highest tassel, the one on the main stalk, was not well 

 located to receive pollen, since the pollen would naturally 

 be carried downward, while those on the lower branches 

 were in a favorable position to receive pollen but not in a 



FIG. 4. An ear of dent 

 corn, with small ears clustered 

 at the base, showing reap- 

 pearance of lateral branches. 



