closely approximated the prehistoric condition. Since 
Plumb presented his distributional data only by states, 
the dots representing these occurrences on our Plate 
XXII are located arbitrarily within the states. Even so, 
his survey data revealed that Maiz de Ocho was best 
adapted, presumably because of suitable conditions of 
temperature and moisture, to the humid part (Alle- 
ghenian area) of the Transitional Life Zone; that is, 
especially to the Allegheny region, Ontario, New Eng- 
land, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin 
and Minnesota. This race also extended down through 
the arid part of the transition zone, where the soil was 
moistened by rivers, springs or sub-surface drainage from 
higher elevations or by intentional irrigation in parts of 
Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and 
northwestern Mexico. But although this eight-rowed 
race was not well adapted to the Southwest, it became 
widespread there, which is in sharp contrast to its almost 
complete absence in the Lower Austral Zone in the 
Southeast (Plate X XI). These historical data suggest 
that Maiz de Ocho arrived in the Northeast by way of 
the Southwest. 
Convincing evidence that Maiz de Ocho did indeed 
come from the Southwest becomes apparent when we 
extend the map of Brown and Anderson (1947) showing 
the prehistoric distribution of Maiz de Ocho to include 
all of the United States rather than just that part east 
of the Mississippi. With this archaeological data added 
to the historical data of Plumb, we find that Maiz de 
Ocho follows the Transition Life Zone from New Eng- 
land across the northern United States and down through 
the Southwest into Mexico( Plate X XII). Furthermore, 
the data on which this distribution is based (Table 1) 
show that the closer one gets to Mexico, the earlier the 
dates for Maiz de Ocho. What at first appears to be the 
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