confusion seems to stem from the fact that pure forms 
of the eight-rowed race are either rare or hidden by the 
great diversity of maize in the Southwest, while eight- 
rowed maize was abundant and often the only archaeo- 
logical maize in the North or Northeast. Accordingly, 
most references to this race follow Carter’s (1945) early 
term of ‘‘Kastern Complex,’’ a term which was coined 
to indicate an Eastern origin. Others (Brown and An- 
derson, 1947) have referred to the same race as Northern 
Flint, a term which seems to be better than that used 
by Carter, since it does, at least, indicate the ‘* Life Zone’’ 
(Plate X XI) where this eight-rowed race attained its 
greatest distribution (Plate X XII). But if we examine 
both the prehistoric and historic evidence concerning the 
distribution of this eight-rowed race, as will be done 
later, we find that its origin can be traced back to the 
Southwest, as first suggested by Mangelsdorf and Reeves 
(1939), and southward to the race Harinoso de Ocho in 
Mexico. The Spanish term ‘‘harinoso’’ refers to the 
floury character of the kernels, while ‘‘ocho”’ refers to 
the eight-rowed condition of the ears. In the East and 
Northeast, this race has acquired ‘‘flinty’’ kernels instead 
of the original floury ones. We are here proposing a more 
general name, Maiz de Ocho, for this race in which we 
include both the Northern Flints and Harinoso de Ocho. 
The Spanish name was chosen to give recognition to its 
Mexican point of dispersal. 
An excellent historical record of the geographic distri- 
bution of the eight-rowed flint (varieties Angel of Mid- 
night, Canadian Kight-rowed Yellow, King Philip and 
Longfellow) was published by C. S. Plumb in 1898 as a 
bulletin of the United States Department of A gricul- 
ture. This record is the more significant because, at this 
early date, before the advent of extensive commercial 
maize hybridization, the races and their distribution more 
[121 J 
