v ***?; 
h°^ e ° J e , 
to a 
r £T« 
S&S *« 
■ “ 2S? 
v, e temale 
Sj 
'®r „ ^crtaJ'Qj] c ® c 
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*7<4e Mothen ojf the Const Gn&p. 
During the mating season of corn, the develop¬ 
ing ear—Mother of the corn crop—is clothed 
beneath its outer green covering of leaf-like 
husks in a delicate gown of warm, moist silk. 
Each individual strand of silk leads directly 
to a kernel on the cob (about 800 per ear). 
Silks play the important part of carrying the 
male pollen down to their female mates on 
the ear. Unless a union takes place between the 
pollen and female sex cells, the kernels fail 
to develop. In nature, kernels on an ear of 
corn have one mother but hundreds of fathers. 
