BREAD PLANTS 47 



this one becomes in turn the nurse of another. 

 The stalk is hidden by the sheaths of the several 

 leaves, until at last the tassel appears, and leaf- 

 making is at an end. In the angle of certain leaves 

 the stem sends out short branches. These are 

 clothed with crowded leaves, and topped with a 

 bunch of long silks. Tassels and the miniature 

 ears are the flower clusters of the corn plant. 



The leaf of the corn plant — All the food the 

 roots gather is carried to the leaves for chem- 

 ical transformation into nutritious sap. Crude 

 materials gathered from the soil and absorbed 

 from the air, assemble in the leaf laboratories, 

 where the energy of sunlight is used to convert 

 raw materials into rich, starchy food, which flows 

 back to supply the growing parts of the plant. 



The arch of a corn leaf is graceful, indeed. 

 What is far more important to the plant is the fact 

 that the greatest possible amount of leaf surface 

 is exposed to the direct rays of the sun. When the 

 air is moist, "you can see corn grow" in mid- 

 summer. The starch factories are working at 

 great pressure. Farmers say "you can hear it 

 grow" by night. A multitude of snapping noises 

 are heard, suggesting the lengthening of fibres. 

 Quantities of water are exhaled as invisible vapor 

 from pores located chiefly on the upper surface of 



