GEDA ERE 
HISTORICAL. 
Indian corn, the Zea mays of botanists, is un- 
questionably native to America. Before the 
discovery of this country by Columbus this 
cereal was unknown in Europe, Asia or Africa. 
Maize was undoubtedly grown by the inhabit- 
ants of North, Central and South America in 
prehistoric times. Mounds that were erected 
prior to the time of the American Indian, of 
which he has no tradition, that have been ex- 
plored in recent years, have contained corncobs 
and charred kernels. In mounds excavated at 
Madisonville, O., in 1879, remains of maize were 
found in quantities. In the caves occupied by 
the early Cliff Dwellers in the southwestern 
United States, ears of corn have been frequently 
discovered. In South America Darwin found 
on the coast of Peru, “heads of maize, together 
with eighteen species of recent sea shells, em- 
bedded in a beach which had been upraised at 
least eighty-five feet above the level of the sea.’’* 
* Animals and Plants under Domestication, New York, 
1890, I, p. 338. 
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