268 A TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY 
process of malting; and the best malting barley in the 
world is grown in eastern England. 
Corn.—Indian corn, or maize as it should be called, is 
peculiarly an American crop (lig. 265). It is thought to 
be of American origin and 
was cultivated by the native 
tribes long before the coming 
of Europeans; and four-fifths 
of the corn of the world is still 
produced in the United States. 
The plant varies in height from 
dwarf varieties less than two 
feet, to large varieties fifteen 
or twenty feet in river bot- 
toms, and even thirty feet and 
morc is reported from the West 
Indies. The staminate and pis- 
tillate flowers occur in separate 
clusters on the same stalk; that 
is, the plant is moncecious. 
The staminate cluster is at 
Fig. 265.—Corn.—After ENGLER . 
and PRANTL. the top, and is called the tas- 
sel; while the pistillate clus- 
ters (ears), with their enveloping bracts (husks), occur in 
the axils of leaves, the long xtyles forming the so-called silk. 
The prominent groups of corn are dent corn, flint corn, 
sweet corn, and pop-corn; and cach of these has many 
varietics, differing in certain qualities and also in color, 
white or yellow grains prevailing. Most of the field corn 
produced in the United States is dent corn, recognized by 
the indentation at the top of the grain. The best soil for 
corn is a rich loam that docs not bake during drought, 
the plowing being deeper than for any other grain. Most 
of the world’s corn is produced in the northern States of 
the Mississippi Valley; and there planting is done in May, 
