LUTHER BURBANK 



type of corn — that is to say, the first com after 

 advancing from the original type of the teosinte. 



The seed of the half ear of fine yellow corn of 

 this primitive type that was received from Mexico 

 was planted. The plants that grew from this seed 

 showed the widest variation. Every one knows 

 that the cultivated corn bears its poUenate flowers 

 or tassels at the top of the stem, and its pistillate 

 flowers marked by tufts of so-called corn silk — 

 and subsequently, of course, producing the ears — 

 in the axils of the leaves far down on the stalk. 



Teosinte bears small tassels at the top of each 

 stalk, in competition with the diminutive ones all 

 along down the stalk. But some of the plants of 

 my single-husked corn bore both tassel and silk 

 together at the top of the stalk. Others bore silk 

 and tassel mingled up and down the stalk, like 

 teosinte. 



The ears of corn that developed sometimes 

 showed clusters of kernels of the size, shape, color, 

 and general appearance of the Kaffir com. Others 

 bore long tassels with numerous kernels. 



By selecting among these different types, I have 

 been able to develop races of corn that, I am con- 

 fident, represent the primitive type, running back 

 to the form of teosinte, and thus clearly enough 

 demonstrating the origin of the plant that occupies 

 so important a place among the present day farm 



[14] 



