MAIZE— KEMPTON 401 



fastened in one or two packages, the loss of a dispersion system extend- 

 ing even to the male panicle, the brachytic lateral branches and sup- 

 pression or total loss of buds, in the axils of the leaves other than at 

 the ear nodes, are all features fitting the plant to man's requirements 

 and unfitting it for independence. Clearly then it is logical to con- 

 clude that these attributes are the result of man's efforts. It would 

 be as unreasonable to ascribe them to fortuitous variation as to 

 accredit them to a beneficent providence. 



Before man could initiate the selection which some authorities 

 beheve eventually led to maize there would have to be some encourag- 

 ing characteristic, some useful part, on the plant with which he started. 

 Now no more useless grasses from the standpoint of human consump- 

 tion could be devised than the American relatives of maize. The 

 seeds of teosinte, the most maizeUke relative, are no larger than a 

 No. 4 shot, are firmly embedded in a brittle articulated rachis and are 

 further protected by a hard shell-like outer glume (pi. 26, fig. 2). 

 They have the added disadvantage of being distributed throughout 

 the plant in spikes of only six or seven that ripen over an extended 

 period. The labor of gathering and the difiiculty of separating 

 enough seeds from their covering to furnish a day's food supply 

 would be disheartening, especially with other more promising grasses 

 from which to choose a cereal food. 



There is no evidence among the earliest burials that teosinte was 

 ever used despite the fact that the "seeds" are almost ideally adapted 

 to long preservation. Further, had this plant served as human food 

 the changes that would have been wrought by selection can be visu- 

 ahzed. Almost certainly the seeds would have increased in size, 

 probably to the point of extending beyond the outer glume and pro- 

 truding from the rachis cavity. The spike would have been stiffened, 

 and the rachis segments would have become firmly united. The 

 outer glume might have become soft, and the number of seeds in a 

 spike would have increased. None of these changes would have led 

 to maize but to a domesticated form of teosinte clearly exhibiting its 

 mode of origin just as the domesticated forms of the Asiatic maize 

 relative, Coix, resemble their wild ancestor. Such a hypothetical 

 cereal as the domesticated teosinte we have sketched would be further 

 removed from the wild plant than are the domesticated forms of 

 Coix, which gives some idea of the time factor required. 



Of course, given time enough, it must be granted that maize could 

 arise from teosinte by selection just as the troupe of monkeys pound- 

 ing at random on the keys of the typewriter would in time reproduce 

 the works of Shakespeare. This period of time, however, is believed 

 to be excessive. 



