390 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



have become flattened by the pressure of the overlying soil during 

 their centuries of burial (pi. 9, fig. 1). Not only do we not hold the 

 record for the largest ears, but all the other records are held by the 

 Indians. The smallest ears are produced by the Indians of Peru as are 

 also the largest and the smallest seeds (pi. 9, fig. 2, and pi. 10). So 

 too with the plant itself; the tallest corn plants known are grown by 

 Indians in Mexico and Central America, where stalks 18 feet in height 

 are not uncommon with the ears borne far above the reach of the 

 grower (pi. 11, fig. 1). The archeological record and the present-day 

 culture of the primitives then shows corn fully developed but affords 

 no evidence as to how it might have originated. 



In none of the Indian burials nor among Uving plants has anything 

 been found suggesting a primitive pre-corn. No plant or plant remains 

 that could be classed as directly involved in the ancestry of maize has 

 been discovered. Maize as we know it today extends backward in 

 time to the earliest graves with no stages intermediate between our 

 corn and some less highly domesticated plant. 



This highly domesticated cereal furnished the foundation of the 

 three remarkable Indian civilizations — Maya, Inca, and Aztec — yet 

 even today it carmot be said with certainty where, how, or when com 

 originated. Definite answers to any one of these uncertainties would 

 go far toward solving some of the perplexing questions of the antiquity 

 of man and his civilizations in America, for maize and man are 

 inseparable. 



Since the liistorical and archeological record sheds no light upon the 

 origin of corn, the inquisitive must turn to the botanical and genetic 

 evidence. Like ourselves and our animals, all plants must have 

 had ancestors, and corn is no exception. To reconstruct the origin of 

 corn it is only required that the ancestors be found, but so far has this 

 plant progressed beyond the horde of untamed grasses that experts 

 cannot agree upon its probable parentage nor the manner of its 

 creation. 



Corn is never found in the wild nor, indeed, can it survive without 

 the care of man. The very quaUty that makes it such a useful 

 domesticated plant, the tight adherence of the kernels to a cob 

 wrapped in multiple layers of husks, unfits it for survival as a wild 

 plant. In having this characteristic it lacks the means to distribute 

 its progeny — a fatal failing for an annual plant forced to survive 

 unaided in competition with readily diffusing wild species. 



No other cereal has so completely lost the abiUty to sow the next 

 generation. Indeed, shattering of seed is still a problem among all 

 grains but corn, so that in this respect maize must be classed as the 

 world's most highly domesticated grain. 



That com cannot persist as a wild plant, even under favorable condi- 

 tions, is accepted by all botanists. Even with competing species 



