384 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
thread of silk is couuected with the pistil of a 
concealed flower, just as much a flower as the 
• Fig. 1. — EAR-BEARING TASSEL. 
more conspicuous ones of the tassel. The ends 
of the silk receive the polleu from the tassel 
flowers, the embryo is fertilized, and the grain 
enlarges very rapidly and soon outgrows the 
rest of the flower, the remains of which we only 
know in the chaff upon the cob which 
adheres there after the corn is shelled. 
We may regard an ear of corn as 
composed of branches united in 
pairs, the number of which differ with 
the variety. These branches are 
as it were soldered together, and the 
flowers which grow along them are 
very much crowded, especially when 
the grain is mature, for then all sem- 
blance to flowers is lost. We then 
have iu the tassel, flowers contain- 
ing stamens but no pistil, and in the 
car, flowers containing a pistil but no 
stamens. In most of the plants with 
which we are familiar the stamens 
and pistil or pistils are both in the 
same flower, but here we have them 
separated, one portion of the flow 
ers performing one function and the 
others another. In these separated 
flowers, as they are called, we find 
that they are uni-sexual by the sup- 
pression of parts. Iu the staminale 
flowers we frequently find an abor- 
tive or suppressed pistil, very rudi- 
mentary it is true, but still something 
standing iu the place the pistil would 
occupy. On the other hand, in pistil- 
late flowers we often find abortive 
stamens, frequently reduced to mere 
little points, or "glands" as they 
are sometimes called, but still suf- 
ficient to show the places where the 
stamens would have been had the 
dower been a perfect one. We have figured two 
»f the most striking of the abnormal specimens 
of com that have come into our possession. 
In figure 1 we have a tassel, but the central 
spike is developed as an ear; 
we have the miniature kernels, 
the silk, and all that belongs to 
an ear of corn except the leafy en- 
velope or husk. Iu this case we sup- 
pose that for some cause the abortive 
or suppressed pistils of the usually 
staminate flower were stimulated into 
developing, and instead of a spike of 
staminate flowers there is produced 
one of pistillate ones. It is not at all 
rare to find here and there a kernel 
of corn — sometimes many kernels — 
growing upon a tassel, in which case 
the development of suppressed pistils ,' 
is less general than iu the instance 
just referred to. In figure 2 we have 
just the opposite of what has hap- 
pened in figure 1, and staminate flow- 
ers precisely like those of the tassel 
are produced within the husk. It 
would seem that in this case flowers 
that should have been pistillate only 
have changed their character entirely ; 
the pistil has been suppressed, and 
the stamens have developed. This 
in a popular way is the best account 
"we can give of these curious phe- 
nomena, and we trust that these il- 
lustrations and remarks may lead our 
corn-growing friends to notice their 
crops more closely. They will find 
almost every season some curious 
departures from the regular growth, 
and we have no doubt they will find 
the study of them a matter of some interest. 
A Freak of a Beet. 
Every one knows that when a beet has been 
produce flowers and perfect seed. This is the 
way all well-regulated beets do. It seems that 
A MULTIPLYING BEET. 
carefully kept during the winter and is planted 
out in the spring, it is its business to go on and 
now and then one prefers a different course/as 
happened to Sir. J. H. Brightly, who sent the 
specimen from which we have had an engraving 
made to Mr. Jas. Fleming, the seedsman, with 
a letter from which we extract the following : 
" Early this spring I brought up, 
from my cellar, about a bushel of 
Egyptian Beets. They had kept re- 
markably well, notwithstanding the 
croaking of some people, so I had no 
a difliculty in selecting half a dozen 
for seed. I selected six of the most 
perfect out of the lot, and planted 
them as usual, covering the crowns 
about an inch deep. In a few days 
five of them started off in fine style, 
throwing up their seed-stems with 
great uniformity. Bui, to my sur- 
prise and disappointment, the sixth 
one 'made no sign.' After a time it 
produced a great bunch of foliage but 
no seed-stem. I was tempted many 
times to pitch it into the road, but as 
I hate a gap, I left it, with its bunch 
of leaves and the stake I had put 
there to support the stems that came 
not. A short time since I took the 
trouble to look at the monster and 
ascertain what was the matter. I 
was again in for a sensation on find- 
ing that, instead of producing seed, 
like a well-ordered and respectable 
root, it had employed its time and 
energies iu forming three good-sized 
beets, as you will see." 
It is the tendency of all plants to 
provide for the perpetuation of their 
kind, if not by seed, then by offset, 
or some other kind of division. Be- 
ing prevented from forming seed 
iu the usual way, it put out a lot of young 
offsets, after the manner of a multiplier onion. 
