CORN STRUCTURE 



91 



its qualities from the pollen-bearing parent as well as from 

 the mother plant. 



It is this second union of double fer- 

 tilization, ■n-hich occurs in some plants, 

 that enables the pollen of a yellow variety 

 of dent corn to produce yellow kernels a 

 few weeks after fertilizing the silks of a 

 white varietj'. This is because the yellow 

 quality has been given by the male par- 

 ent to the endosperm, or main part of 

 the grain, which color shows as yellow 

 through the traasparent hull or bran 

 that covers the grain. 



91. The ear. — The ear varies greath' 

 in length, diameter, and number of rows 

 of grain. Among ordinary or dent varie- 

 ties, the usual number of rows ranges 

 between twelve and twenty-four, four- 

 teen to eighteen being most common in 

 productive varieties. A good ear of corn 

 should bear about a thousand grains. 

 The number of rows is alwaj's even, a 

 fact which has a satisfactory explanation 

 in the structure and evolution of the cob 

 and pistils. (See Hunt's " Cereals in 

 America," p. 148.) 



The best ear is one ha\'ing a cob not 

 extremely small, since this would not 

 allow a sufficient number of rows. Neither should the 

 cob be very large, since this tends to late maturity and 

 to the rotting of the ear in a wet fall. 



Fig. .38. — a Well- 

 peopohtioned 

 Ear of a Hard 

 Yellow V.ariety. 



