Horticultural Division. 



A New Maize and its Behavior Under Cultivation. 

 In 1888, the late Serene Watson, of Harvard University, received 

 from Professor A. Duges, of Guanajuato, Mexico, some stalks and 

 kernels of a wild com which, was found at Moro Leon about ffiur 

 Mexican leagues north of Lake Cuitzco, near the southern boundary 

 of the State of Guanajuato, in southern Mexico. The coi-n was 

 wholly unknown to cultivation, and the natives of the district 

 believe it to be the original source of the cultivated ^^rieties of 

 maize. This opinion is of great interest bec^ause the oi-iginal form 

 of Indian com is wholly unknown. It is known among the natives 

 as mais de coyote, fi^om the resemblance of the little kernels to 

 dog's teeth. About a half dozen ears, in a cluster, were with the 

 specimens sent to Harvard, each ear about two inches long and 

 bearing a few rows of very small pointed white kernels. The ears 

 and kernels were peculiar in themselvos, but the fact that they 

 were borne in clusters atti-acted close attention. Mr. Watson gave 

 me two or thi*ee kernels of this com, which I planted in a forcing- 

 house in the spring of 1880. One seed germinated, and the plant 

 grew well until it reached a height of three feet, when it! was 

 destroyed by an accident. This was probably the first att:empt 

 to cultivate this com. In 1890, it was gTOwn in the Botanic 

 Gardens, at Cambridge, having been started under glass. "The 

 season was a long one," INfr. Watson writes, "and there was no 

 heavy frost in Cambridge until near the end of October, The com, 

 however, was at that time still very gi-een, and the stallcs were 

 finally cut and stored under shelter in the hope that the ears would 

 ripea in the stack but upon very few did any of the kernels mature." 

 The tallest stalks were over ten feet high, with a diameter of 

 nearly two inches. But the most striking peculiarity of the plants 

 was the abundance of lusty suckers which " grew as rapidly as the 



