BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
VoL. 16, No. 6 
CamsripGr, Massacuusetts, DecemBer 4, 1953 
THE PRE-COLUMBIAN 
CULTIVATED PLANTS OF MEXICO 
BY 
Rosert L. DrEssLter 
INTRODUCTION 
IN recent years many important papers have been pub- 
lished dealing with cultivated plants, their origins and 
their relationships to human cultures. ‘These studies 
have served to increase greatly our knowledge and under- 
standing both of the plants and of the people by whom 
they were used, as well as to point out some of the areas 
where further research is most urgently needed. Middle 
America, especially from central Mexico to Guatemala, 
was one of the two great centers of agriculture in the 
New World, the other being the Andean area, and a 
very considerable variety of cultivated plants were known 
to the peoples of this region. It seems, therefore, worth- 
while to attempt an enumeration of the plants which 
were cultivated in this area, with a discussion of the per- 
tinent botanical literature as to their origins, distributions 
and importance. 
At this point the author wishes to acknowledge his 
indebtedness to the persons who have aided in this study 
by their discussion and suggestions concerning many 
phases of the problem. Special thanks are due Drs. 
Edgar Anderson, Howard S. Gentry, Gordon W. 
[115 J 
