BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
Series 1 Brooklyn, N. Y., September 10, 1913 Number 10 
SOME INTERESTING VARIETIES OF CORN 
GROWING IN THE GARDEN 
In the ecological section of the Garden, as well as in the 
plant breeding plots near the laboratory building, t he visitor 
will find some specimens of proterogynous maize (Indian Corn), 
a race of this much varying plant which matures its silks before 
its tassel, thus insuring to a greater degree than is commonly 
the case, the occurrence of cross-fertilization. 
Cross-fertilized corn is generally asserted to be preferable to 
that which is inbred. Why? This brings up the old question of 
the merits and demerits of inbreeding and cross-breeding. In 
Indian corn, as is well known, continuous inbreeding tends to 
produce a preponderance of plants lacking in normal vigor, a 
fact which has led many people to suppose that this practice 
directly causes degeneration. In the light of modern research a 
different explanation has been given for the occurrence of 
scrubby plants and the loss of vigor in inbred corn strains. 
In order to make this explanation clear, it will be necessary 
to contrast methods of fertilization in corn with some plant 
such as the pea, in which inbreeding is the rule. A field of corn 
may consist of many types or varieties, even though planted 
from the ears of a single plant; while a field of peas or beans, if 
grown from the seed of one plant, will ordinarily be monotonous 
in its lack of diversity. Corn is naturally a cross-fertilized plant; 
hence most corn plants have two separate parents. Peas and 
