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THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April, 



teresting to note the apt quotations he malces to 

 prove his theory. Here are a few of them : Mark 

 2 : 23, 'And it came to pass that He went through 

 the cornfields on the Sabbath day; and His dis- 1 

 ciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of < 

 corn.' Leviticus 2 : 14, 'And if thou offer a meat 

 offering of thy first fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt I 

 offer the meat offering of thy first fruits, green 

 ears of corn dried by fire, even corn beaten out of 

 full ears.' Leviticus 23 : 14 — 'And ye shall eat 

 neither bread nor parched corn, nor green ears 

 until the self same day that ye have brought an 

 offering unto your God.' Gen. 41 : 5, — concern- 

 ing Pharaoh's second dream — 'And he slept and 

 dreamed the second time; and behold, seven ears 

 •of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.' 

 Job 24: 24, says the wicked are 'cut off as the tops 

 of the ears of corn.' 



" It is a general truth that those plants which 

 have many varieties and a wide range as to soil 

 and climate have been grown for ages. For ex- 

 ample : the pea and the bean, wheat and oats, the 

 rose and the lily, the apple and the pear, etc., etc. 

 Now, Indian corn in this fact can establish a great 

 age, for its varieties need only end with the skill 

 and the patience of the cultivator, while its range 

 in America is from 40 S. Latitude to 54 N. Latitude; 

 in Europe, over its central and southern portions ; 

 and in Asia, over limited areas of India, China 

 and Japan. 



"It is not certain that Indian Corn has ever 

 been found in its wild state, though we have a 

 variety called ' wild corn,' in which each kernel is 

 •covered with a husk. The U. S. Patent Office 

 Report for 1853 has a cut of it, and says it is to be 

 found growing ' in the Rocky Mountains of North 

 America down to the humid forests of Paraguay-' 

 We have the rather doubtful authority of native 

 Indians of Paraguay that it has been found grow- 

 ing wild in their forests. The seed of this wild 

 species will grow the common and husked varieties, 

 which would seem to prove it not the primitive 

 type, but a variety escaped from cultivation. 



" An unimpeachable history of Indian Corn can 

 never be written, as the subject is full of counter- 

 facts, contradictions and speculations. Learned 

 authorities, both early and late, have differed as to 

 'its origin, some claiming it a native of Asia, others 

 of America. • 



" Bock, in 1532, forty years after the discovery 

 of America, and Ruellius, in 1536 ascribe to it an 

 Arabian origin. Fuchsius, in 1542, mentions its 

 introduction into Greece from Asia. Bonalous, in 

 1836, calls attention to the assertion of certain 

 Spanish authors that corn came to Spain from 

 Arabia, though he himself believes the plant a na- 

 tive of China. He speaks of an illustrated work 

 on maize written by a Chinese botanist, Li-chi-tchin, 

 in 1552, which seems to have had great weight with 

 him in his decision on this question. A map of 

 the 13th century, called ' Chart of Incisa,' describes 

 'mcliga'asa 'grain of golden color and partly 

 white.' In 1204, the Crusaders are said to have 

 brought a few of these grains from .-Xsia Minor into 

 Italy ; and in 1250 the Italian Crescenzio describes 

 its methods of culture, which strikingly coincide 

 with our methods of culture of corn. 



" An argument of considerable weight is de- 

 duced from the general statement of botanists, that 

 plants of one family mainly inhabit a common 

 locality. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, Indian 

 rice, sorgum — all the allied family of corn are of 

 Eastern nativity. Now, suppose a Western origin 

 for corn is admitted, then it is separated from its 

 kindred. If of Eastern origin, then how came it 

 here, can only be answered by inference. There 

 are marks and relics of an ancient civilization scat- 

 tered here and there over our land — a civilization 

 beyond any found here at the time of America's 

 discovery in 1492. That it came from the East 

 over a Northwestern highway, connecting Asia 

 and America many scholars believe. Admitting 

 this, we can easily see that the migrating nations 

 might bring with them many seeds and plants, and 

 among them Indian Corn. 



" The Fair God of the Mexicans, a God of peace 

 and peaceful arts, is supposed to have been a Cau- 

 casian brought by some untoward wind or wave 

 upon these Western shores. There is a tradition 

 that when he lived on earth an ear of corn was as 

 much as a man could carry. Putting this tradi- 

 tion with the fact that corn is so involved in their 

 religion and religious rites, it is easy to surmise 

 that the same wave that brought their God brought 

 their seed likewise. Frail craft have been driven 

 over the wide ocean and have made a safe landing 

 on these shores several times within the past cen- 

 tury. 



" Many modern authorities, as added proof of 

 an Eastern origin for corn, point to the grain 

 found at Athens, and at Thebes. Rifaud called 

 this grain 'Maize.' Virey calls it 'Sorghum Bi- 

 color,' a native of the East ; Delile says, of Egypt. 



"There is a long list of weighty authorities ar- 

 rayed on the side of its American origin. Dodon- 

 ius in 1583, Gerarde in 1597, Matthioli in 1645, 

 wrote of Its introduction into Europe from America. 

 Thomas Nuttall and De Candolle assign it to 

 a South American origin. Humboldt, Darwin and 

 Flint maintain its home is this side of the ocean. 

 They deny that 'meliga' mentioned on the Chart 

 of Incisa is the species 'Zea Mays.' They claim 

 no treatise on corn was ever written prior to the 

 discovery of America, that since the Portuguese 

 had discovered Java as early as 1495. fifty-five 

 years gave ample time to introduce it thence into 

 China. They make much of the fact that no 

 traveler in Asia or Africa, though he describes 

 minutely the products of the soil, ever makes 

 mention of this most important one. Again, that 

 it seems strange beyond belief that if known at 

 all it was not in common cultivation, since it 

 spread so rapidly upon its introduction from 

 America. On the other hand, in .America it was 

 found from Chili to Montreal, and as far West as 

 the discoverer penetrated the ' native wilds.' Co- 

 lumbus found it on the Island of Cuba; Cortez 

 found it in Mexico; Pizarro found it in Peru, the 

 Puritans found it in New England; the James Ri- 

 ver colonists found it in Virginia ; Cartier found it 

 in Canada, and Marquette, in 1673, found it in 

 Illinois. 



" Nor did it exist alone in one variety, but in 

 many. Winthrop mentions corn of various colors. 



