VIII. 



MAIZE. 



I. STRUCTURE. 



206. Name. — Columbus fouad Zea mays L. cultivated on the 

 Island of Hayti, where it was called mahiz ; hence the name 

 maize. Mahiz, or marisi, is said to be an Arawak Indian word 

 of South American origin.* The word corn is used m Europe 

 as a generic term for all cereals, and originally the wor-^ meant 

 any hard edible seed, grain or kernel. In England ir ear of 

 corn means a head or spike of wheat. Naturally, therei^re, the 

 colonists, finding maize cultivated abundantly by the Indians, 

 applied the term Indian corn to distinguish it from other corn. 

 In the United States corn is everywhere understood to mean 

 maize and a Pennyslvania court has ruled that the word corn is 

 a sufficient description of Indian corn. In Latin America 

 " maiz " is the term generally used. 



207. Fodder, Stover and Silage. — Fodder, when applied to 

 maize, is the plant, including the ears, which has been cut and 

 field cured without regard to the manner or thickness of plant- 

 ing or stage of maturity. Stover is the residue after the ears 

 have been removed from the fodder. When the whole plant or 

 the residue after removing the ears is placed without curing in 

 the silo, the resulting material is called silage. 



208. Relationships. — The tribe {Maydeae) to which maize 

 {Zea mays L.) belongs differs quite widely from the tribe 

 {Hordeae) to which wheat, rye and barley belong. In the same 

 tribe with maize belong teosinte {EiicJilaena mexicana Schrad.), 

 a sub-tropical plant sometimes cultivated in the Southern States 



1 Harshberger, J. W.: Maize; A Botanical and Economic Study, p. 88. 



