but certainly do not prove, that (1) multiplication pre- 
ceded condensation in this sequence, and (2) the maize 
grown by the Bat Cave people was early-maturing. 
Primitive Maize Reconsrrucrep 
From a study of the cobs found in the lower strata of 
the Bat Cave material, supplemented by evidence sup- 
plied by fragments of husks, sheaths, and tassels, it is 
now possible to reconstruct a primitive maize with a sub- 
stantial measure of confidence in the reliability of the 
reconstruction. The earliest Bat Cave material, which 
was probably an early-maturing race, had glabrous leaf 
sheaths. Its tassels bore lax central spikes and were 
sparsely branched. There was no condensation of the 
spikelets. Its ear, borne several nodes below the tassel, 
was surrounded, but not enclosed, by an involucre of 
slightly modified leaf sheaths (some bearing ligules and 
rudimentary laminae) which were at least twice as long as 
the ear itself. The small ear arising from the center of this 
involucre was a typical grass spike bearing paired pistil- 
late spikelets on a slender rachis. The phyllotaxy was 
definitely spiral. Indeed, it was so strongly spiral that, 
in some cases, the cupule from which the spikelets arose 
was not at right angles to the vertical axis of the rachis 
but was more or less parallel to the sloping path of the 
spiral.’ The lower glumes of the spikelets were fleshy, 
slightly flattened and lacking in conspicuous venation. 
They were quite similar to the glumes of sorghum and, 
like them, they did not completely enclose one half of 
the kernel. The upper glumes were somewhat longer 
than were the lower, a condition common among grasses, 
and were glabrous, chaffy, strongly veined, boat-shaped, 
and enclosed half of the kernel with length to spare. The 
‘In a previous paper the senior author (1945) expressed the opinion 
that spiral phyllotaxy in maize is largely the product of introgression 
from teosinte. He could scarcely have been more wrong. 
[ 288 ] 
