| PERFECT FLOWERS IN MAIZE |
By Professor E. G. MONTGOMERY
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
IN The Popular Science Monthly of January, 1906, the author wrote a brief article entitled, "What is an Ear of Corn," presenting some observations on the occurrence of hermaphrodite flowers in maize; this occurrence with other evidence indicating that maize had probably originated in some manner from a perfect flowered plant, while in all cultivated maize the flowers are strictly single, being either male or 
Fig. 1. Hermaphrodite Flower of Maize (Zea mays) showing structural features (reproduced from former article). female. However, a comparative study of male flowers (from the tassel) and female flowers (from the ear) showed analogous parts in both. The tassel flowers in the older stages, however, are borne in pairs, while the ear flowers are single, but a study of the embryonic ears showed the male flowers to be twinned at this stage, but as development took place one of these flowers became entirely abortive and only one fully developed. Perfect flowers were also found in somewhat deformed plants, which looked in many ways like reversion in types. A study of the gross structure of the ear and tassel showed a close structural analogy between the ear (including cob)
