Fig. 2. Archaeological evidence shows that primitive 
corn may sometimes have borne two ears, an upper and a 
lower, in the same husk system. To reach the terminal 
opening of the outer husks the styles — “silks’” — attached 
\ to the basal ovules of the lower ear would have to be quite 
\ long and the pollen grains effecting fertilization quite large. 
| i A This wild corn may have been *‘preadapted”* to evolve 
i \ /; under domestication in the direction of producing long 
i Yoo 4 
single ears. Teosinte does not have this preadaptation. 
Solid lines represent actual parts: broken lines artist's re- 
construction. Drawn by Julian Camara-Hernandez (22). 
] 
all 
1/2 actual size. 
ondary ears, even in modern corn varieties, are often two- 
ranked and four-rowed. 
Husk systems similar to the one described from Bat Cave 
and illustrated in Fig. 2, have also been found in the remains 
from San Marcos Cave in Tehuacan and the Huarmey Site in 
Peru (23, 24). 
Primitive corn as we now conceive of it with its large pollen 
may thus be recognized as a classic example of what some 
students of the dynamics of domestication, notably Vavilov 
245 
