changed. Since it is unlikely that the consumption of 
intact teosinte fruits provides any satisfaction or nutri- 
tional benefit to the consumer, there must have been 
some other reason for their use. Hernandez states that 
teosinte seeds are a cure for dysentery (Wilkes, 1967) 
and although it is doubtful that this is true, the inhabi- 
tants of the Infiernillo Canyon caves may well have be- 
heved it to be. Or did the Indians of this region perhaps 
practice the custom of planting teosinte in their corn 
fields to improve the corn as did those of western Mexico 
(Lumholz, 1902) or those of some parts of Guatemala 
(Melhus and Chamberlain, 1953)? The prehistoric speci- 
mens do not distinguish between the two possibilities. 
The finding of several fruits in a leather container in a 
pit extending down froma Palmillas floor suggests only 
that the fruits were regarded as having some value. The 
occurrence of maize-teosinte hybrids suggests that teo- 
sinte grew in or near the corn fields in prehistoric times 
although it is unknown in Tamaulipas today. 
The early occurrence in this site of teosinte and of 
tripsacoid maize, presumably the product of teosinte in- 
trogression, May raise questions regarding the hy pothesis 
of Mangelsdorf and Reeves (1939, 1959) that teosinte is 
a hybrid of maize and 7T’ripsacum which may have oc- 
curred after the cultivation of maize began. There is still 
earlier evidence of tripsacoid maize, although not of 
either teosinte or 7'ripsacum, inthe prehistoric cobs from 
caves in the valley of Tehuacan. In these sites, the trip- 
sacoid corn first appeared as a single cob in the Abejas 
phase, 3400-2300 B.C., and had become well established 
in the later Ajalpan phase, 1500-900 B.C. The earliest 
corn in both Tehuacan Valley and in ‘Tamaulipas is non- 
tripsacoid corn. ‘The tripsacoid corn appears soon after- 
ward and in Romero’s Cave at the same level as teosinte. 
These several findings, although consistent with the hy- 
[ 47 ] 
