THE BARLEY-CORN. 
223 
October, and should be ascertained locally. A cool and moist 
September calls for earlier, a dry and warm for later, planting 
or even deferring the planting if October also proves dry. 
Deciduous trees can be planted in fall with more satisfaction than 
conifers because their root activity lasts longer and the demand 
for water at the top soon ceases. Fall planting for deciduous 
trees is said to be even preferable to spring planting when they 
are severely cut back.” {The Forestry Quarterly, 2: 35, Nov., 
1903-) 
THE BARLEY-CORN. 
I. Some Points of Structure. 
By Professor Francis E. Lloyd, 
Teachers College, Columbia University. 
The study of the fruit of the grasses, known as the caryopsis, 
presents considerable difficulty to the elementary student. Large 
even as the “ grain ” of Indian corn may be in some varieties, it is 
scarcely an easy task to make out the more important structural 
relations, and one of the commonest errors seen in students’ note 
books is the labelling of the corn grain a “ seed.” If, however, 
in our ordinary definition of a seed we exclude the wall of the 
ovary, it is obvious that this error is due to the failure to dis¬ 
tinguish between the seed coats, properly speaking, and their 
pericarp or ovary wall, which in the grasses closely invests the 
seed. In the ripened barley-corn the students’ difficulty is still 
greater, since the two paleae or outer and inner chaff also re¬ 
main attached to the pericarp, to which they are more or less 
adherent in some varieties. It is for the special purpose of 
making these relations, in particular, clear that I offer the accom¬ 
panying illustrations* which, I believe, teachers will find useful in 
demonstrating the structure of the caryopsis. It should be re¬ 
membered that a really lucid understanding can be had only by 
* These are made from photomicrographs taken by Mr. Leo Wallerstein 
from preparations made by myself. I have to thank Dr. Max Wallerstein 
for the use of the cuts. 
