called ‘‘rachis flaps,’” sometimes protruding from the 
surface, are in this specimen loosely spaced with the re- 
sult that the rachis flap is extremely prominent. The 
phytomers of the rachis are loosely joined. The general 
structure is one which, if its characteristics were slightly 
exaggerated, would furnish a mechanism for the breakage 
of the ear and the dispersal of the seeds. The structure 
of this cob and its parts is shown in Plate XX NIV. 
This is the first archaeological maize approaching a 
type capable of self-sowing which we have encountered. 
Although there is little possibility that it is wild maize, 
it may not be too far removed from it. And yet it has 
no characteristics in which it differs completely from the 
remaining specimens in this collection. It merely exhib- 
its the characteristics of Karly Nal-'Tel in somewhat ac- 
centuated form. 
Is Early Nal-Tel a Pod Corn? 
Mangelsdorf and Reeves (1989), following earlier stu- 
dents of maize, postulated that primitive maize was both 
a pop corn and a pod corn. The cobs of Early Nal-Tel 
bear out the first assumption. Whether they support the 
second may be largely a matter of definition. Certainly 
the primitive Nal-Tel with its relatively thick, fleshy 
glumes is different from any tunicate maize of this type 
known today. Mangelsdorf (1948) has shown, however, 
that there are several intermediate alleles at the T'u-tu 
locus on chromosome 4 and it may well be that Nal-Tel 
carries one of these. Unfortunately, it is impossible to 
test the genotype of Early Nal-Tel to determine which 
of the alleles at the T'wu-tw locus is responsible for its 
prominent glumes. However, another Mexican pop corn, 
Chapalote, closely related to Nal-Tel, has relatively 
prominent glumes similar to those of Nal-Tel and genetic 
tests indicate that these are governed by an intermediate 
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