158 Harsliberger. — Maize : 



treatise on Natural History, published in 1597 (Pen-tsao- 

 kung-mu), furnishes us abundant proof that the Chinese did 

 not know it before the discovery. 



1557, introduced into the Cape Verde Islands. 



1 593, Hawkins finds it in the Canaries. 



1595, maize introduced into the Marquesas Islands. 



1775, Thunberg enumerates maize among the edible plants 

 of Japan. 



The present cultivation of maize extends throughout both 

 American continents. In Europe, M. de Gasparin 1 assigns as 

 the region of maize the plains which border on the Pyrenees, 

 the valleys which descend from the Jura, all Italy, Corinthia, 

 Austria and Hungary. It is cultivated in Asia Minor, India, 

 China, the Phillippines, the Malay Archipelago and Australia, 

 and furnishes in all these places a most important food for 

 man and beast. The surprising and rapid extension, in such 

 a short period of time, has depended on the merits of the 

 plant as an important article of food. 



1 Gasparin, Lecouteux, " Le Mais" Paris, 1853, 260 



