S INDIAN CORN CULTURE. 
Ears of Indian corn are occasionally found 
in vessels placed in ancient Indian tombs or 
mounds in Chili, Peru and Central America. 
The Smithsonian Institute at Washington has 
humerous interesting specimens of corn, ex- 
humed from mounds and tombs, that must be 
very ancient. One specimen was discovered 
deposited in an earthen vessel eleven feet under 
ground in a grave with a mummy, near Ari- 
quipe, Peru.* Marcay refers to corn found in 
Aymara Indian tombs in South America, that, 
from the material accompanying it, must belong 
to a period long before the Spanish conquest.+ 
Among the ruins of Peru are stone carvings οὗ 
ears of corn, executed centuries ago, before the 
discovery by Europeans. 
Original Home.—The original home of In- 
dian corn is thought by some to be Central 
America or Mexico, south of the twenty-second 
degree of north latitude.{ In 1888 Prof. Dugés 
collected at Moro Leon, north of Lake Cuitzco, 
Mexico, several corn plants which have been 
termed wild maize, and considered by some to 
be the original parent of Indian corn. Plants 
from this source were grown at the Cambridge, 
*Report United States Department of Agriculture, 1870, 
p. 420. 
7 Travels in South America, I, p. 69. 
t Maize: A botanical and economical study, by John W. 
Harshberger, 1893, p. 202. 
