ESSEX SOCIETY. 103 



An Essay on the History and Importance of the Indian 

 CoRNj AS AN Agricultural Product. 



By Charles Louis Flint. 



The complete history of Indian corn seems never to have 

 been written by an American. The materials for it must be 

 sought in old and uninviting volumes, in the narratives of 

 voyages and travels, and in no less than five or six different 

 languages. The skilful labor required to bring together the 

 various and often conflicting accounts, is by no means small. 

 The writer who would undertake such a task, should possess 

 much knowledge of the botany of the western continent, as 

 well as that of Asia and the Asiatic isles, to be able to draw 

 the most natural and correct conclusions of his own. He who 

 shall do it, as it should be done, will render a great service to 

 American agriculture. 



In France, Parmentier published a work on maize in 1785. 

 This was soon followed by that of Harasti, in Italy, devoted to 

 the practical details of the subject, in 1788. In Germany, 

 Burger published a work on the Natural History and Culture of 

 Maize, in 1809. Still more recently, the labors of Bonafous, in 

 France, have thrown much light and interest upon the same 

 subject. In Spain, though no very valuable work has appeared 

 on the history of maize, such frequent allusions are made to it 

 in the narratives of the voyages of Columbus, Alonzo Negro, 

 Penzon, Vespucci, and Cortez, as to be of great service in de- 

 termining its native country. The works of Oviedo and Her- 

 nandez, also, are worthy of mention. Still more important is 

 the authority of Humboldt. 



The word zea, which is applied to maize, is derived from a 

 Greek word, which signifies to live ; and the reason of its 

 application, is the great amount of nutritive matter which the 

 plant contains. Of all the species of Gramina, the zea mats is 

 probably the most cultivated. It is annual, and the stems, 

 which are cylindrical and closed at the nodes, rise to the height 

 of from four to ten feet. The sheaths of the leaves are split, 

 the flowers are in double rowed imbricated bracts, the male 



