2 THE BOOK OF CORN 



In 1620 the Pilgrims found quite extensive plantings 

 near Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Columbus found it 

 on the West India islands about the end of the fifteenth 

 century. The burial mounds of the natives of North 

 America who preceded those of our day, the tombs of 

 the Incas, the catacombs of Peru, contain ears or 

 grains of corn, just as the monuments of ancient Egypt 

 contain grains of barley and wheat and millet seed. In 

 Mexico, a goddess who bore a name derived from 

 that of maize (Cinteotl) answered to the Ceres of the 

 Greeks. At Cusco the virgins of the sun offered sacri- 

 fices of bread made from corn. 



The Antiquity of Corn — Nothing is better cal- 

 culated to show the antiquity and generality of the 

 cultivation of a plant than this intimate connection 

 with the religious rites of the ancient inhabitants. A 

 most remarkable proof of the antiquity of corn has 

 been discovered by Darwin. He found ears of Indian 

 corn and eighteen species of shells of our epoch buried 

 in the soil of the shore in Peru, now at least eighty-five 

 feet above the level of the sea. The Smithsonian in- 

 stitution at Washington has an ear of corn found de- 

 posited in an earthen vessel eleven feet under ground, 

 in a grave with a mummy near Ariquepe in Peru. The 

 grains are rather sharp pointed, small, and slightly 

 indented at the apex, lapping one over the other in 

 thirteen rows. 



Although nearly all parts of tropical and sub- 

 tropical America have been explored by a great num- 

 ber of botanists, none has found corn in the condition 

 of a wild plant, and the original form of the species is 

 not identified as yet. Probably it may be a composite 

 species of which no single form can be taken as the 

 type. Some botanists consider that Indian corn orig- 

 inated from teosinte (Euchlaena Mexicana), an annual 

 fodder grass, similar to corn in general appearance 



