BULLETIN 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 
renee eT 
— 
Notes on Maize. 
By E. Lewis STurTEVANT. 
x 
The words Za Mays are only fitted for generic use. So_ 
numerous and divergent in appearance and use are the varieties 
vig corn already known that to call all by one name is to speak too 
indefinitely for any practical purpose. Zea Mays may mean the 
: dwarf pop growing but eighteen inches tall in our gardens, or the 
4 huge something which is reported as over twenty-four feet tall in 
Central America—a variety so hard that the national custom is to 
Parch before attempting to pulverize, or so soft as to readily 
eauce to meal on a hollow stone—a variety which, despite 
extensive distribution, cannot compete with a commercial form, or 
4 form which enters into commerce—a variety whose hundred 
kernels weigh but 46 grains, or another whosé hundred kernels 
Weigh 1531 grains, If we consult botanies we find nothing of 
— 4ny help towards determining questions of climatic relation, of 
adaptability or environmental reaction. If we examine pages of 
travel, of archeology, of ethnology or of history, we fare scarcely 
‘ter in securing sufficient preciseness of mention for purposes of 
‘Study, From whatever point of view we attempt an examination 
‘into the natural and economic history of the maize plant and 
Product, we meet with difficulties, usually insurmountable, arising 
from indefinitiveness of nomenclature. 
