268 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 563 



portions of the country-side. The verdurous sides of the 

 planting are the sides of the frame; the foreground is 

 the bottom and the skj' is the top. L. H. Baii.ey. 



Ithaca, N. Y. 



The Original Type of Corn. 



Referring to the article by Mr. Hershey in a recent 

 number of Science, there are six types of corn, viz. : 

 dent corn, flint corn, pop corn, sweet corn, soft corn 

 arid pod corn. Each of the first five has well marked 

 structural differences in the kernel. Dr. Sturtevant 

 proposed to distinguish these differences by calliny- 

 these types agricultural species. The kernel of the 

 pod corn does not present structural differences mark- 

 edly unlike that of the flint corn, and probably under 

 proper conditions would take on the characters of dent 

 corn, but this type differs from all the others in that 

 each kernel has a husk of its own, besides the usual 

 husk that covers the ear; hence the name pod corn. 



It has been claimed that this type of corn has been 

 found growing wild in the Rocky Mountains and one 

 observer reports it from Brazil. Just how authentic 

 these observations are I do not know. I have some 

 doubts about them, but be that as it may, this type has 

 a special interest to Mr. Hershey in that it is quite cus- 

 tomary for it to have fairly well-formed ears in the 

 tassel, each kernel being covered with husks, and the 

 whole ear more or less covered with a husk, although 

 the outer husk is generally rather slight for reasons 

 which will appear later on. 



The transition from corn bearing its seeds in the 

 tassel to that having ears at the joints is not hard to 

 imagine, when we recognize that each joint has a tend- 

 eilcy to produce an ear or throw out a sucker. Suckers, 

 that is, stalks of smaller size than the main stalks and 

 frequently barren, result from the lower joints of the 

 main stalk, and ears from the upper ones when any- 

 thing develops from these joints. 



Now if we assume it likely that originally each joint 

 threw out a sucker, which at that time would be a stalk 

 bearing at its top both staminate and pistillate flowers, 

 it is not difficult to see that these suckers might easily 

 be modified into ears, that is, stalks bearing only pistil- 

 late flowers. Obviously, in the process of natural 

 selection, those plants would be most likely to survive 

 which had the most pollen in the upper tassel, or, in 

 other words, in the tassel of the main stalk, because 

 the pollen tends to descend. On the other hand, the 

 ovaries on tassels lower down on the suckers would be 

 more likely to be fertilized by virtue of their position. 

 It would thus come about that there would be less and 

 less ovaries produced on the upper tassel and less pollen 

 on the lower ones, until we had only pistillate flowers 

 below and staminate ones above. 



There are varieties to-day, such as Blount's Prolific, 

 which have six to eight ears upon a stalk ; but these 

 varieties are almost uniformly inferior to those varieties 

 with but one ear per stalk for the production of grain. 

 We can readily understand, therefore, that man in semi- 

 civilized times early recognized that, for the production 

 of grain, the only part of the plant then used, those 

 plants with the fewer ears were superior, and hence 

 selected such until the one-eared varieties resulted. 



All varieties tend to sucker, more or less, when plant- 

 ed thinly ; that is, to produce more stalks than there 

 were seeds planted. The supernumerary stalks come 

 from the joints at the base of the main plant. If you 

 plant four kernels of Brazillian flour-corn, a variety 

 belonging to the soft corn type, you will get, under 

 normal conditions, about twelve stalks of corn. About 

 three joints of each main plant produce stalks or 



suckers. While suckers frequently produce ears, they 

 have a tendency to be barren, and they are more prone 

 than the main stalks to produce corn in the tassel, al- 

 though the production of corn in the tassel is more 

 common generally than Mr. Hershey evidentl}^ supposes. 

 All ears are borne at the end of stalks, much more 

 reduced in length than those we commonly call suckers. 

 Yet the length of these stalks varies greatly in different 

 varieties, and practical men prefer, other things equal, 

 the ear with the shorter stalk or shank. Of course, in 

 early times those plants having the grain on the shorter 

 stalks would be selected, both because the stalk would 

 be of no possible advantage and because the shorter the 

 stalks the more completelj' the ear would be covered 

 with husk, due to the fact that the husks are but slightly 

 modified leaves. Indeed, this inaj^ have come about 

 from natural selection, if corn ever in this form grew 

 in astatfe of nature, due to the fact that the husk is a 

 protection from its natural enemies, and hence the more 

 husk on the ear the less would be the liability of the 

 seeds being destroyed, hence the greater likelihood of 

 such plants being perpetuated. Thomas F. Hunt. 



Ohio State Universitj-. 



— Imnjediately following the World's Congress on Hor- 

 ticulture at Chicago in August last, a series of meetings 

 ■was held to consider the advisability of organizing a hor- 

 ticultural society which shall include every country of the 

 globe. After much discussion, in which many eminent 

 men from various parts of the world engaged, the World's 

 Horticultural Society was organized and the election of 

 the three general officers was held on the 25th of August. 

 This new society is designed, in the language of the con- 

 stitution, "to promote correspondence and to facilitate 

 exchange of plants and information between the countries 

 of the world. This society can coordinate and extend the 

 work of all existing societies, compile statistics, promote 

 legislation and education, prepare correspondence direc- 

 tories, diffuse all the latest information from the various 

 parts of the globe, consider means of transportation and 

 faciiitate the exchange of varieties and every commodity 

 in which jDomologists, viticulturists, florists, vegetable 

 gardeners and other horticulturists are interested. The 

 society will probably meet occasionally at the various 

 International Exhibitions, upon which occasions, also, it 

 can greatly aid m procuring exhibits from all parts of the 

 world. The Society now requests the earnest and early 

 support of its friends. The Vice Presidents of the vari- 

 ous countries will be announced soon, and the organiza- 

 tion will then be quickly completed. The Society needs 

 the co-operation of every enlightened horticulturist and 

 every important horticultural organization. Prosper J. 

 Berckmans, President, Augusta, Georgia, U. S. A. ; Henri 

 L. DeVilmorin, Vice President, No. 22 Avenue de laBour- 

 bonnais, Paris, France; L. H. Bailey, Ithaca, N. ¥., U. S. 

 A., Secretary-Treasurer for the United States, and tempo- 

 rary Secretary-Treasurer at Large. 



— The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, at a 

 meeting held in Boston on Nov. 8, voted to grant — 

 from the C. M. Warren Fund for Encouraging Chemical 

 Research — the sum of $300 to Professor C. F. Mabery, of 

 Cleveland, Ohio, in aid of his investigations on the Amer- 

 ican sulphur petroleums. 



— Another of Robert S. Ball's popular books on Astro- 

 nomy, entitled, "In the High Heavens," is to be j)ublished 

 soon by J. B. Lippincott Company. It will be profusely 

 illustrated by drawings in the text and a number of full- 

 page colored plates. 



