232 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. 8. A Reversion to the Ancient Branched Ear Type. 



or South America — the plains because annuals do not develop in 

 forested regions. Under the circumstances, our search need only be the 

 less troublesome absentia search in botanical records, since the regions 

 have been combed by botanical explorers for three hundred years. 

 The result as far as maize is concerned was nil. Perhaps though the 

 word nothing is too exclusive. First cousins of our interesting family 

 were discovered in Mexico and Guatemala, the plant called teosinte; 

 and experimental evidence indicates a sufficiently near relation to justify 

 these regions as the original home of the emigrant. This evidence, 

 which gives us a picture of the original plant, is now to be considered. 

 Maize varieties differing slightly from each other are now numbered 

 by the hundred. Of these, five or six differ by very distinct characters 

 and have come to be thought of as subspecies. Those known as dent, 

 flint, pop, sweet and flour corns are familiar to every one. One known 

 as Curagua with toothed leaf edges, one with very hairy leaves known as 

 hirta and one in which each seed is covered with husks or glumes known 

 as tunicata are not so common. These varieties are our heritage from 

 the aboriginal inhabitants, for each was known and cultivated some- 



Pig. 9. A Common Reversion having Seeds on the Tassel. 



