INDIAN CORN. 107 



England : and in Ireland one or more prekeltic races 

 seem to have reoccupied the west and south. 



One sometimes sees the ears of the Indian Corn 

 hanging up to dry under the eaves, but this most 

 artistic and natural decoration is less frequent here 

 than by the Lake of Geneva. The dried leaves are 

 used to stuff mattresses ; on these one could sleep, 

 " tant bien que mal," were it not for pieces of the 

 stem and knobs from the axis of the cob which are 

 mixed with the leaves. 



" If you find fern seed, you may hear the grass 

 grow ; " but if you enter a field of maize, without 

 any " fern seed," you will hear a cracking sound at 

 intervals. I suppose this to be the splitting of the 

 sheaths. 



To economise ground, and to save bean sticks, a 

 scarlet-runner (Phaseolus) is sown at the foot of each 

 Maize plant. Each stem bears, as a rule, more than 

 one ear, but I do not remember ever seeing more than 

 three. When the seeds are set, that is, after fertiliza- 

 tion, the farmer frequently lops off the top of the 

 plant with the staminate spikes, which grow at the 

 end of the axis. Deprived of its terminal tuft, and 

 burdened with a scarlet-runner, the Maize has an 

 overloaded look. Long suffering it stands in the 

 burning sun ; mutilated and supporting a gaudy 

 parasite, yet ripening its heavy load of grain. How 

 well this represents the lot of many a mortal ! 



The corn-fields of the Riviera are made bright 

 with all, or almost all, the wild flowers which 

 adorn the crops at home : Poppy, Corn Campion 

 (Githago), Corn Centaury (C. Cyanus], Venus' Comb 

 (Sc.andlx Pecten), Camelina, rare in England, and 



