70 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[May, 
cross fertilisation he may wish to effect. The 
stamens have an ear entirely to themselves in 
that drooping plume that crowns the plant. 
They are so many happily contrived little 
sacks, hanging airily out of the branching 
ear, each by a slender filament, stirred by a 
breath that would not wake an aspen leaf, 
and with little mouths that open downwards, 
and discharge their golden shower in the sun. 
There is never any wilful waste. In wild wet 
weather, when the pistils would only be unfit, 
and clogged by a yellow paste, the little 
mouths are tightly shut, and the pollen being 
within the stamens, and not damageable out¬ 
side, it is kept always perfectly dry. 
The corn-ears are formed at the side of the 
main stalk, springing alternately from the axils 
of the broadest foliage. The stalk at the 
joints they come from is cunningly grooved, 
so that the young ear in its envelopes lies 
nestled in this cradle till the time for it to 
emerge. Past these the stalk runs up much 
lighter, with only the slender burden of the 
blossom-head. 
The strongest corn ear is always nearest to 
the male head, and furthest from the ground, 
and in this country seldom more than two ears 
will fill with corn and ripen. 
From the sheaths of the corn oar appear at 
blooming time the pistils, that form a long 
green or ruddy-tinted tassel of silky filaments, 
one attached to each ovary in the female head 
that is awaiting the next stage of its develop¬ 
ment by pollen grains striking somewhere 
along the course of each silken thread. 
The pistils will grow to a great length if 
kept waiting for the pollen, as if to increase 
their chances of meeting with it; but their 
growth ceases and they wither in a few hours 
when impregnated. 
Upon timely management when the plants 
are in bloom depends that all-important point 
the fulness of the ears. Of course, where 
countless numbers can be grown, in anything 
like a “patch of Maize,” in a proper climate, 
nature will accomplish her object perfectly. 
Whatever be the wind that blows, the fertilis¬ 
ing showers of golden dust will be wafted or 
driven through the skeins of expectant pistils 
in one direction or another. 
I may just note in passing that a plant of 
Maize is generally not self-fertilised. Its own 
pollen is blown to the stigmas of some other, 
and its own pistils are fertilised by pollen 
from some neighbouring plant; while the 
very position of the corn ears, directly under 
their own broad leaves, shelters them very 
much from the action of their own pollen. 
Therefore, with our mere handful of plants 
we must supply the conditions of full fertility 
by preserving the pollen from waste, and by 
applying it to the pistils. If the plants are in 
the open air, the best way to secure it is to 
tie the flowering heads up in a light tissue 
paper bag when they are seen to be in bloom. 
There is a fresh pollen supply every warm or 
sunny morning, but not much in the after¬ 
noon. The bags should be put on by 10 a.m., 
and taken off about noon. The pollen is so 
abundant that it can be measured by the tea¬ 
spoonful from every two or three heads daily. 
It should be immediately sprinkled among the 
pistils from day to day, until they cease grow¬ 
ing and there are none left unwithered. The 
ear will then begin to swell rapidly, and be as 
full of corn as any picked specimen brought 
over from “ the States.” With me, a hundred 
plants are nearly a month in passing the 
blooming period, but this is mainly due to 
their being crosses between different varieties 
of earlier or later maturity. One pure variety 
would probably bloom more conveniently, and 
no doubt in large crops this must be an 
important point. 
When the ears are full, they will be standing 
boldly out from the plant like huge pods, and 
will remain for a few w T eeks apparently at a 
standstill. Out of doors they may be left 
until the October frosts destroy the foliage. 
It is not likely that they will get over ripe, or 
that any part beyond the ears will come to 
look ripe at all. If grown under glass it 
should be in nothing less free to light and air 
than an unlieated orchard-house, protection 
being grateful only in wild weather, at bloom¬ 
ing time, and in the later autumn. Of course 
under these advantages there may be obtained 
a more bountiful and beautiful harvest. 
In all but the stout green stem, the plants 
will acquire the strong autumnal tints of rus¬ 
set and yellow in which the foliage naturally 
ripens. The heavy ears will drop at the neck 
and hang fruitfully down in their pale gold 
sheaths, with their silken threads a rich nut 
brown, and the flowering ears will have 
changed to the familiar yellow of our own oat 
