eo 5 
of our other species, as recorded here for pops, flints, dents and 
sweets, which suggests atavism; to the flimsiness of the cob and 
its occasional readiness to disarticulate; to the tendency towards 
‘fasciation or clustering in the ears; to the hardness of the corneous 
‘matter in the kernels; to the protective character of the pods as 
against insect and bird depredation, as favoring distribution of the 
seed under natural agencies, as favoring germination, through re- 
tention of moisture of seed dropped on the surface of the ground, 
as protective agaist weevil infection. It is almost certain, Says 
Darwin, that the aboriginal form would have had its grains thus 
protected. 
As a wild plant this species has been insufficiently recorded 
from Paraguay, and also in the form of Zea canina from Mexico. 
Heller writes: « We often find in Mexico single plants of maize 
which grow self-sown, and flourish without culture; and though 
they may stand miles from any inhabited place, they cannot be 
considered wild, as, notwithstanding the often monstrous variety, 
they always bear the characteristics of cultivated maize.” Pro- 
fessor Watson quotes Professor Brewer's letter to me, in which he 
says that a well-known German collector, a Mr. Roezl, told ne 23 
1869 that “he found in the State of Guerro a Zea which ‘i 
thought specifically distinct and undescribed, the ears very small, 
in two rows, truly distichous, the ear (but not each grain REP: 
arately) covered with a husk, the grain precisely like some ba 
ties of maize, only smaller and harder.” Professor Watson ap 
this probably the same as his Zea canina. Professor Duges, " 
sending this mais de coyote to Professor Watson, mentions that 
‘a pop corn, mais rosero,” is cultivated in the same region, 4 ae 
of some significance. : 
We hence are inclined to believe that when a truly wild Zia '8 
discovered it will be of a podded form, the kernels small and very 
flinty. It will be recalled that in our trial of vegetations pop ahs # 
seed held the supremacy, and that pop corns showed the strong 
vitality in regerminations after air-drying. 
IX, . sane 
When we consider the number and the perfection of the aie: A 
ties of maize, we cannot but recognize that a long antiquity ° Ma 
