78 Harshberger. — Maize: 



de coyote," at Moro Leon (otherwise Congregacion), about 

 four Mexican leagues north of Lake Cuitzco, on the boun- 

 dary line between the States of Guanajuato and Michoacan. 1 

 The Duges plant, raised at the Cambridge Botanical Garden, 

 is probably the same as that found by Dr. Roezl, in 1869, in 

 the State of Guerrero, and described as a plant with ears 

 very small, in two rows, truly distichous, the grains small and 

 hard. 2 



Wild maize must have ready means of seed dissemination. 

 The cultivated forms would disappear, if man did not sow the 

 kernels, for the grain is too large to be carried by the winds, 

 and the sheathing husks prevent animals from reaching the 

 ripened achenes. The grain is smaller than the ordinary culti- 

 vated varieties, but large and wholesome enough to attract wild 

 beasts and birds, and in all probability this is one of the ways 

 in which corn was distributed. The following observation is 

 to the point: 3 "Yesterday, while at work, I saw a flock of 

 chickadees {Pants atricapillus L.), one of which I saw had 

 something in its mouth, which upon inspection proved to be 

 a kernel of sweet corn. He was on an apple tree when I 

 first saw him, apparently trying to find a storehouse, but fail- 

 ing flew to a board fence, and running along found a split, 

 where he deposited it." Several birds have taken their names 

 from their liking for corn. An American blackbird, of the 

 family IcteridtE, one of the marsh blackbirds, is fond of Indian- 

 corn, and devours it greedily. P. L. Sclater calls Pseudoleistes 

 virescens the South American maize bird, and Wilson desig- 

 nates Agalcens pJiceniceits the maize thief. The Indians may 

 have learned the use of maize from the wild animals, for 

 Professor Otis T. Mason refers to the fact that half-starved 

 Indians robbed the stores of nuts and corn hoarded by the 

 animals. 



The original form, in the wild state, was propagated prob- 

 ably by lateral offshoots. All the cultivated forms produce 

 suckers. " The [Mexican] plants began to grow vigorously 



1 Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., xxvi, 158. 



2 Brewer, New York Agric. Soc, 1877-1882. 



3 American Entomologist and Botanist, 11, 370. 



