55 ° Seed-Breeding. [August, 
hence it is especially fitted to respond to any wise effort 
of ours. 
Zea maize, Indian corn, or simply corn, occurs within a 
wide range of climate, and is modified accordingly in the 
growth of the plant and the structure of the grain. There 
is a vast range between the pop-corn, whose normal length 
of ear is ij- to 2 inches, and the field corn of from 9 to 
12 inches, or even 15 inches ; or in the number of rows of 
corn on the cob, which varies nominally from eight rows to 
twenty-four or thirty-six rows, as the “ Canada 8-rowed ” 
and the “ Virginia white gourd ” illustrate, and exception- 
ally even more or less. We find some varieties wherein the 
arrangement of the kernels on the cob is uniformly 8-rowed ; 
other varieties where the rows may be either eight, or ten, 
or twelve; others still uniformly 12-rowed, or 16- to 22- 
rowed, or from 24- to 36-rowed. Some varieties bear the 
crop near the ground, from the lower nodes of the stalk ; 
others, high up, on the upper nodes ; and this feature of the 
plant is, so far as our observation extends, a true and uni- 
form characteristic of varieties. In shape the ears may be 
blunt, or pointed after a manner, at the extremities ; or 
may be of a long oval, tapering from a swollen centre 
towards the butt and tip ends ; or may form a true taper 
from butt to tip ; or may be cylindrical throughout. The 
kernel, again, may be arranged in lines wherein there is a 
distinct evidence of arrangement in pairs, or without any 
distinction or manifest separation into pairs of rows. The 
shape of the kernel may be nearly globular, or oval, or 
elongated ; it may possess a flat point, or a dented extre- 
mity, or be furnished with a sharp tooth, either straight or 
recurved : it may be shaped like a horse’s tooth, or be flat- 
tened ; be longer than broad, or broader than long ; may be 
smooth, or wrinkled, &c. In colour the kernel may be 
white, pale yellow, translucent, dark yellow, orange-yellow, 
reddish yellow, red, violet, purple, blue, slate, black, or 
variegated ; in texture may be hard and brittle, softer and 
granular, and in some varieties almost gummy. Its specific 
gravity varies greatly — some 8-rowed, yellow, like the 
“ Waushakum,” weighing 64 lbs. to the struck bushel; 
others, like the Tuscarora, weighing seldom 56 lbs. to the 
bushel. The kernels differ in the structure of their con- 
tents : in the pop-corns the oils being distributed nearly 
universally throughout the kernels ; in the varieties of the 
Canada corn the oily appearance being external to the chit 
and starchy portions, and forming the periphery from the 
hilum as a centre ; in the dents, the apex being free from 
