8 BULLETIN 653, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the kernel and make it develop. There must be a great abundance 

 of pollen, because so much is lost. Each silk extends to one kernel 

 only.) 



The corn leaves and stalks: How are the leaves arranged on the 

 stalk's? What is the position of the ears with respect to the leaves? 

 Notice that the margin of the leaf is longer than the middle of the 

 leaf. This makes the leaf wavy. Would this help to prevent the 

 wind from tearing the leaves? Does the wind damage corn leaves 

 much in your country? What do the corn leaves do in very dry 

 weather? Is this an advantage to the corn plant? How? Cut 

 across a cornstalk. Notice the threads that run through it. Where 

 are they thickest — in the middle or near the outside of the stalk? 

 These threads are woody bundles called fibro-vascular bundles. Split 

 a stalk and see if they go the whole length of it. Do they extend 

 into the leaf? Cut out abont 3 inches of a stalk between joints. Put 

 one end of this in water and blow through it. Through what part 

 of the stalk does the air go? The chief function of the fibro-vascular 

 bundles is to conduct the sap up and the prepared food down in the 

 plant. They extend into the leaves and become the veins, and thus 

 help to make up the leaf framework. 



The joints of the cornstalk are called "nodes,"' and the spaces 

 between them are called " internodes." If a stalk of corn is broken 

 down, at what point does it begin to straighten up again? Is the 

 node, then, of the same length all around? Which side of the 

 internodes is flattened or channeled? Is it the same side all the 

 way up? What other crop plants have nodes and internodes like 

 corn? Is corn a grass plant? Is wheat, flax, clover? 



Corn ears : On which side of the internode is the ear always found ? 

 Is a leaf sheath always found on the other side of the ear? Sup- 

 pose the ear were borne on the end of a long branch, with leaves 

 arranged just as they are on the stalk. Now, if you could "tele- 

 scope" this branch from tip to base, so that it would be only an 

 inch long, would the leaves, then, have the place of husks around 

 the ear? Arc the husks corn leaves? What is the short branch 

 that bears the ear called? How does it come to be so short? Could 

 it hold a large car up off the ground if it were very long? Is it 

 better to have the shank hold the ear upright or allow the tip to 

 hang down a little? Wlvy? What is the advantage in having the 

 tassel at the top of the stalk? Which would be the better kind of 

 com to cultivate — the sort we have now, or one with long stalks 

 and hianche- and with both stamens and pistils at the ends? Do we 

 sometimes still find a few kernels in the tassels or parts of the tas- 

 sel attached to the ear? (Have such specimens collected at husk- 

 ing time and brought to the school.) Are they the best kind of 

 corn to plant \ (Try it and see.) 



