A Botanical and Economic Study. 151 



here it was first used and distributed to the surrounding 

 tribes, who by barter carried it to the farthest limits of the 



continents. 



The evidence of archaeology, history, ethnology and 

 philology, which points to central and southern Mexico as 

 the original home of maize is supported by botany and 

 meteorology. All of the plants closely related to maize are 

 Mexican. It is an accepted evolutionary principle, that 

 several species of the same genus, or genera of the same 

 tribe, though dispersed to the most distant quarters of the 

 globe must originally have proceeded from the same source, 

 as they are descended from the same progenitor. It is also 

 obvious, that the individuals of the same species, though now 

 in distant regions, must have proceeded from one spot, where 

 their parents were first produced; for it is incredible that 

 individuals, identically the same, should have been produced 

 from parents specifically distinct. Applying these principles 

 to maize, we reach the conclusion that maize was originally 

 Mexican. Monotypes and genera, which contain but a few 

 species have, as a rule, a very restricted area. Zea is mono- 

 typic, and is singularly unprovided with means of dispersal, 

 so that the area of its original home must have been espe- 

 cially circumscribed. The discovery of a very primitive form 

 in Mexico aids in determining the wild limits of the species. 

 Meteorology helps in fixing the area more definitely. The ques- 

 tion naturally arises, in what part of southern central Mexico 

 did the Indians first find the maize plant ? Its original home 

 must not be looked for in low-lying districts nor in forests, for 

 maize does not thrive in warm, damp climates, where manioc 

 is grown. 1 The region above 4500 feet altitude and south of 

 twenty-two degrees north latitude, and north of the River 

 Coatzalcoalcos (ninety-four degrees west, seventeen degrees 

 north ) and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, fulfills more nearly the 

 conditions which the wild form required for its development. 

 The evidence to the present date places the original home 

 of our American cereal, maize, in central Mexico. 



1 Sogot, Cult, des Cereales de la Guyane, Franc. Journ. de la Soc. Centr. d'Hortic. 

 de France, 1S72, 94. 



