DEFECTIVE SEEDS IN MAIZE--AN 

 ANCIENT CHARACTER 



Frederick D. Richey 

 Cereal Iinrstigafioiis, Bureau of Plant Industry. U. S. Department of Agriculture 



DEFECTIVE GRAINS AT LEAST THREE CENTURIES OLD 



Figure 12. This ear of maize was unearthed in an Indian graveyard in Peru, unused 

 since the time of the Spanish Conquest. The ear is, therefore, at least three hundred years 

 old, and may be centuries older. One of the defective grains is shown in each view. Defects 

 of the endosperm exactly similar in external appearance are found today in self-pollinated 

 strains of maize, and it is interesting to speculate whether any of these modern abnormalities 

 are genetically the same as this ancient defect. 



THE ear of maize illustrated in 

 Figure 12 was obtained from an 

 Indian grave at Rontoy, Peru, on 

 March 24, 1923, by Mr. D. S. Bullock 

 of the Bureau of Agricultural Eco- 

 nomics, who presented it to the Office of 



Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, on April 19, 1923. 



The Indians were placed on reser- 

 vations some distance from Rontoy at 

 the time of the Spanish Conquest, and 

 the burying-ground in which Mr. Bul- 



359 



