CHAPTER II 



SYSTEMATIC BOTANY OF MAIZE, AND ITS ALLIES 



Of all the plants grown for food throughout the ' Ten species are now recognized of which S. offi- 



cinarum L., the sugar cane, is the most important. 

 Grown chiefly for the production of sugar and molasses 

 but to some extent for forage, it is noted here merely 

 as being somewhat distantly related to maize. 



2. SORGHUM Moench, Meth. 207. 1794.— 

 Holcus L. Sp. PL 1047. 1753, in part. — Blumen- 

 bachia Koel. Descr. Gram. 28. 1802. 



Perennial or annual grasses with spikelets (except the terminal) 

 in pairs, one sessile, perfect and awned, the other pedicelled, awn- 

 less, and usually staminate, the terminal sessile spikelet with two 

 pedicellate spikelets; the spikelets arranged in terminal panicles 

 of one to five tardily disjointing racemes. 



There are about six species of which two are culti- 

 vated in the United States, chiefly in the South. S. 

 halepensis, Johnson grass, is a forage grass. S. vul- 



■world, it is probable that the most valuable and most 

 widely cultivated are the six grasses — maize or Indian 

 corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, and rice — the value of 

 the crops being approximately in the order shown. 

 The sweet corn, treated in this part of The Vegetables 

 of New York, is a group of sweet -kerneled varieties 

 of that complex and variable species, maize. 



Maize, as will be shown in the following pages, is 

 undoubtedly the most highly specialized species in the 

 plant family Gramineae. It is placed by systematic 

 botanists in the subfamily Panicatae, tribe Tripsaceae. 

 Its closest allies are naturally some of the other members 

 of that tribe, but it also shows a very close relationship 

 with many of the species of the closely allied tribe 

 Andropogoneae. In fact, Hitchcock 1 says, " This 



tribe. ; referring to Tripsaceae] is scarcely more than £are Pers., sorghum or sorgo, has many races or varieties 

 a division of the next tribe, Andropogoneae." This 

 question is discussed more fully under the descriptions 

 of the various genera. The relationship of the more 

 important of these plants is shown in the following key. 



KEY TO GENERA OF IMPORTANT ALLIES OF MAIZE 

 Spikelets bisexual wholly or in part, in pairs occasionally in 3's 

 generally one sessile and with both stamens and pistil i perfect 

 or bisexual and the other pedicelled and perfect or not. 

 Andropogoneae in part.) 

 Pedicellate spikelet perfect as is the sessile one, both awnless. 



1. Sacoharuni 

 Pedicellate spikelet staminate but without pistil, sessile spikelet 

 perfect: 

 Spikelets awned, pedicel not thickened, the racemes mostly 



forming a compound panicle 2. Sorghum 



Spikelets awnless, pedicels thickened and appressed to the 



thickened rachis joint 3. Manisuris 



Spikelets unisexual, the staminate generally in pairs, one sessile and 



the other pedicelled, the pistillate spikelets separate from the 



staminate in the same or in a distinct spike Tripsaceae in part ; 



Staminate and pistillate spikelets on separate portions of the 



same spike, the pistillate portion of the long many-flowered 



spike breaking up into several one-seeded joints. 



I. Tripsacum 

 Staminate spikelets in separate spikes forming terminal tassels, 

 the pistillate forming spikes in the axils of the leaves: 

 Pistillate spikes distinct, imbedded in the hardened floral axis. 



5. Euchlaena 

 Pistillate spikes aggregated in an ear surrounded by numerous 

 husks, the floral axes grown together forming a cob 



6. Zea 



1. SACCHARUM L. Sp. PI. 54. 1753. 



Perennial grasses with spikelets in pairs, one of each pair 

 pedicelled and the other sessile, both perfect flowered, awnless, 

 arranged in panicled racemes, the axis disjointing below the spike- 

 lets; glumes somewhat hardened, the sterile lemma similar but 

 hyaline: fertile lemma hyaline if present.- 



grown under the names of broom corn, chicken corn, 

 durra, feterita, kafir-corn, Kaoliang, milo, shallu, sorgo, 

 and Sudan grass. The relationship of these plants to 

 maize has been stated by Weatherwax 3 as follows: 

 " It is unfortunate . . . that monoecism (i. e. the 

 bearing of pistillate and staminate flowers on different 

 parts of the plant) was adopted as a unifying charac- 

 teristic in forming the Tripsaceae. ... A thor- 

 ough morphological study of the Andropogoneae may 

 ultimately show that maize and the sorghums represent 

 one branch, and Tripsacum, Euchlaena, and Rott- 

 boellia [Manisuris] another, of the descendants of 

 some common stock. The oriental Tripsaceae con- 

 stitute almost a separate tribe." 



3. MANISURIS L. Mant. 2:164. 1771. 



Perennial grasses with awnless spikelets in pairs, one sessile 

 and perfect, the other pedicelled and staminate, the pedicel thickened 

 and appressed to the rachis; the spikes thus becoming narrow and 

 cylindrical or nearly so; more or less leathery glumes, lemmas and 

 palea thin, enclosed within a pedicelled spikelet, often rudimentary. 



Of the numerous species of this genus none have 

 attained sufficient economic importance to acquire a 

 common English name. It is here noted solely because 

 of its relationships and the mention made to it heretofore. 



t. TRIPSACUM L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 2:1261. 

 1759. — Gama grass and its allies. — Dactylodes Zanoni- 

 Monti ex Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 2:772. 1891. 



Perennial grasses with unisexual spikelets; the staminate 

 spikelets 2 -flowered, in pairs, one sessile and the other pedicelled 

 or sessile, similar to those of Zea, glumes firmer; the pistillate 

 spikelets single and on opposite sides of a jointed thickened rachis, 

 the lower portion of the same spike, and consisting of a perfect 

 floret and a sterile lemma; glumes more or less leathery; lemmas 

 and palea thin and hyaline. 



•Hitchcock, A. S. A Text-book of Grasses, 158. Macmillan. 1922. 



5 The generic descriptions given here are adapted from Hitchcock, A. S. The Genera of Grasses of the United States. United States 

 Dept. Agr. Bui. 772. 1920. 



3 Weatherwax, Paul. hoc. cit. 30. 



9 



