MAIZE— KBMPTON 39]^ 



elimmated, the hundreds of young seedlings that spring from a buried 

 ear of corn, all within the space of a few inches, struggle with each 

 other for the available water and nutrients to the end that none suc- 

 ceeds in producing seed (pi. 11, fig. 2). Maize, in its present form, 

 therefore — a form it has been seen was attained at least 2,000 years 

 ago — must have survived wholly as the result of man's solicitude. To 

 the American Indian must go the credit for developing corn from its 

 wild ancestors, bringing it to its present high degree of perfection, dis- 

 tributing it over two continents, and maintaining it for several thou- 

 sand years. 



Unlike most domesticated plants of the Old World, whose ancestry 

 is not so beclouded, no one knows what sort of wUd plant the American 

 Indian had out of which he fashioned corn. Botanists have placed 

 corn in the tribe of grasses called Tripsaceae, the members of which are 

 differentiated from all other related tribes in having their sexes in 

 separate spikelets. The separation of the sexes is considered to be a 

 fundamental distinction in plant classification, though in the case of the 

 corn tribe it oddly enough produces a strange grouping. On the 

 formal systematic classification, in addition to its American members, 

 the maize tribe includes a group of Asiatic grasses, the best known of 

 which is Job's tears {Coix lachryma jobi) (pi. 12, fig.l). To Occidentals 

 the seed-bearing part of Job's tears is familiar as beads, but to the 

 Burmese, who have developed many soft-shelled forms, this plant is an 

 important cereal. The other Asiatic members of the maize tribe have 

 not appealed to man and remain as wholly wild plants under the for- 

 midable names of Sclerachne, Polytoca, Chionachne, and Trilobachne, 



It should be kept in mind that these Asiatic grasses have been 

 placed in the same tribe with maize largely because of the fact that 

 their sexes are borne in separate spikelets. In appearance they do not 

 suggest maize, and in some respects they occupy a position inter- 

 mediate between the Tripsaceae and that group of gigantic Old World 

 grasses, the sorghum tribe (pi. 12, fig. 2). 



The American relatives of maize fall into two distinct groups or 

 genera, known to botanists as Tripsacum and Euchlaena. The former 

 is commonly loiown as gama grass (pi. 13, fig. 1) and the latter is 

 becoming familiar under the Aztec name, teosinte ; a name which may 

 be translated as "god grain" (pi. 13, fig. 2, and pi. 14). 



The group of gama grasses is widespread in North America and the 

 most ubiquitous member of this group, Tripsacum dadyloides, common 

 in the United States, has been found in South America (pi. 15). How- 

 ever, the center of the genus appears to be in Mexico and Guatemala. 

 In those countries this genus is represented by several species and inter- 

 specific hybrids, several of which are quite cornlike in general aspect, 

 chiefly because of their large broad leaves and many branched tassel- 

 like terminal inflorescences. The commonest member of this genus, 



