268 



A TEXT-BOOK OP 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 (Fig. 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 

 more 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 monoecious. 

 The staminate cluster is at 

 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 styles forming the so-called silk. 

 The prominent groups of corn are dent corn, flint corn, 

 sweet corn, and pop-corn; and each of these has many 

 varieties, 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 does 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, 



FIG. 265. Corn. After ENGLEK 

 and PRANTL. 



