. The botany of crop plants : a text and reference book. Botany, Economic. 164 BOTANY OF CROP PLANTS What Is, the "Ear," Morphologically?—There are two theories as to the morphology of the ear of corn. The view of Hackel and of Harshberger is that the ear is the result of a fusion of a number of two-rowed pistillate spikes. Since each spikelet is two-flowered, and the lower abortive, there are often formed the two distinctly paired rows. The cob is said to be formed by the fusion of separate rachises. Opposed to the above theory is that of Montgomery, who holds that the ear develops
. The botany of crop plants : a text and reference book. Botany, Economic. 164 BOTANY OF CROP PLANTS What Is, the "Ear," Morphologically?—There are two theories as to the morphology of the ear of corn. The view of Hackel and of Harshberger is that the ear is the result of a fusion of a number of two-rowed pistillate spikes. Since each spikelet is two-flowered, and the lower abortive, there are often formed the two distinctly paired rows. The cob is said to be formed by the fusion of separate rachises. Opposed to the above theory is that of Montgomery, who holds that the ear develops "directly from the central spike of some tassel-like structure similar to the well-known corn ; His evidence for this belief may be summarized as follows: 1. He has found tassels in which a few pistillate flowers were found on the central spike, also tassels in which the central spike had developed into a fair- sized ear of corn. 2. He observed a case in which the lateral spikes as well as the central one had developed pistillate flowers, form- ing a number of four-rowed "nubbins" surrounding a central well-developed twelve-rowed ear. 3. The central spike develops pistil- late flowers much more readily than the lateral ones of the tassel. The central spike has the greater number of rows of spikelets. 4. He has observed the development of pistillate flowers from staminate ones. This development is as follows:. Fig. 6q.—Longitudinal section of staminate spikelet of Country Gen- tleman sweet corn. X 15- G, glume; Pa, palet; An, position of one of the lateral anthers; i, lem- ma; A, dorsal anther. P, rudimentary pistil; J, joint of rachilla. (After Weatkerwax.). Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Robbins, Wilfred William, 1884-1952. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston's Son
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