nature of prehistoric replicas of pod corn, Weatherwax 
has compelled us to examine the significance of pointed, 
imbricated kernels with the result that we have found a 
fur more plausible explanation for their occurrence than 
that which we had earlier (17) proposed—the introgres- 
sion of 'Tripsacum and teosinte. 
More useful than ceramic replicas are actual prehistoric 
specimens. Mangelsdorf (18) pointed out that many pre- 
historic cobs have the deep pockets, with the general as- 
pects of a honey comb, of heterozygous half tunicate and 
concluded that these represent a weak form of pod corn. 
Later, Mangelsdorf and Smith (19) found that many of 
the prehistoric cobs of Bat Cave have the long glumes 
and slender rachises characteristic of weak pod corn and 
concluded that these, like the Peruvian cobs, involve an 
expression of alleles at the 7’ locus. Both Weatherwax 
(29) and Randolph (20) have expressed skepticism of the 
conclusion. \Weatherwax’s statement on this point fol- 
lows: 
The illustrations shown are not very convincing as to the tunicate char- 
acter of the materials at any level, and there must be something 
wrong with the artist’s reconstruction of the primitive podded ear, in 
which the individual grains, rather than the pairs @f grains, seem to be 
spirally arranged. 
66 
The suspicion that ‘‘... there must be something 
wrong with the artist’s reconstruction...’ is a classic 
example of an observation colored by inhospitality to an 
unwelcome idea. The fact is that the artist’s reconstruc- 
tion was printed side by side with an actual photograph 
of the prehistoric specimen which shows clearly that the 
individual spikelets are indeed spirally arranged. Nor is 
this an unusual pattern in prehistoric corn. It would be 
surprising if Weatherwax had not himself encountered 
it. Anderson (1) described some of the prehistoric Peru- 
vian specimens as having cross spirals, like a pine cone. 
[ 845 ] 
