20 CEREALS 
times they observed annually a very ancient custom in which 
rice grains were planted by the Emperor with appropriate 
ceremonies in token of its great value to the nation. Finally, 
in the New World, evidences abound of the cultivation of 
maize ages before the coming of Columbus. Ears of Indian 
corn occur along with the most ancient remains in Mexico 
and Peru. Moreover, the Spanish conquerors found that in 
Mexico the natives worshiped an agricultural divinity to 
K2~ 
Fic. 9.—Wheat. A, spikelet of beardless wheat, enlarged. F, flower with 
bracts spread. C, D, E, bracts. G, pistil with stamens, and a pair of ~ 
lodicules at base. K!, K2, kernel. R, rachis. (Baillon.) 
whom they brought the first-fruits of their maize-harvest, 
just as the Romans brought their offerings of grain to Ceres. 
17. Earliest use of grains. Although we may be sure 
that the cultivation of the grains began many years before 
the time of our earliest records concerning them, we have 
no means of knowing how long ago they were first planted 
as a crop; nor have we any definite knowledge of how any 
one of them first came to be cultivated. Still there is good 
reason to suppose that before the advantages of planting 
were discovered, it was the custom to gather the wild grain 
when it was ripe, just as certain savage tribes do with other 
grains at the present day. Thus it would happen naturally 
