CHAPTER XIV 

 TROPICAL CEREALS 



MAIZE. Zea Mays 



Habitat. Maize, or as it is often called Indian corn, is a native of 



tropical America, where it was cultivated by the inhabitants 

 from the earliest known times. In extra tropical regions it 

 grows with great luxuriance in the summer time, and the 

 early settlers in the United States finding the grain culti- 



Origin of vated by the aboriginal Indians, called it Indian corn. Now- 



the name. , . . . . . , _ 



a-days maize is grown in enormous quantities in the States, 

 and the term corn has been universally applied to it there, 



Used by the other cereals being known as grain. The Spanish discoverers 

 of America found maize extensively used as food by the 



Stone imple- Caribs, and other inhabitants of the West Indies. The grains 



ments. 



of corn were ground into meal by these ancient West Indians 

 with stone mullers formed into beautiful symmetrical shapes ; 

 and the author has some very fine specimens of these mullers 

 which were found with other Carib stone implements in the 

 A^staple islands of Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis. Even now maize 

 is the staple food of the Indians of Central America who 

 make its flour into thin cakes, called tortillas, which are 

 baked on griddles. In the United States, Indian corn pre- 

 pared in various ways forms a very important part of the 

 food of the people, and one of the Judges of that coun- 

 try once said " Maize was as indispensable to a Yankee, as 

 " the potato to an Irishman, or the oat to a Scotchman." 



