104 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



flower being placed at the apex of the stem. Each grain is 

 furnished with a style, which extends along the inner side of 

 the sheaths, and hangs like a fine silken thread, forming the 

 tassel. The stamens are three ; the seeds are rounded on the 

 surface, compressed at the sides, and arranged in rows. They 

 are extremely farinaceous, or mealy, which gives the plant its 

 value. The varieties are innumerable. These varieties are 

 owing, in part, to difference of culture, climate and soil. Of 

 these we shall speak more at length hereafter. 



Naturalists have long disputed the origin of maize. The 

 question is one of interest, inasmuch as some claim our own as 

 its native country, while others contend that it came from the 

 East. It is proper to state, briefly, the argument as it stands, 

 after which, we shall be better able to draw somewhat satis- 

 factory conclusions. 



Bock, the first botanist who wrote of it, forty years after the 

 discovery of America, asserts that it came from Arabia, and was 

 called wheat of Asia, (ble d'Asia,) great wheat and great reed* 

 But four years after, the same opinion is maintained by Ruelli- 

 us,f whose assertions are, perhaps, worthy of respect. FuchsiusJ 

 also declares, that it came from Asia to Greece, thence to Ger- 

 many, and was called wheat of Turkey, because the Turks at 

 that time possessed all Asia. Many writers have taken the 

 authority of the old map, or chart of Incisa, of the thirteenth 

 century, to prove that it came from the East. Of such, we may 

 mention Sismondi,*§> M. Michaud,|| Gregory,1I Lonicer,** Amo- 

 reux,f f and Reynier, XX who was familiar with the history of 

 agriculture. This chart describes a grain of a golden color, 

 and partly white : — " granis de colore aureo, et partim albo," — 

 under the name of meliga. Crescenzio describes the method 

 of cultivating this grain, which is very nearly the same as that 



" Hist. Nat. du Mais, p. 11, par M. Bonafous. 



t De Natura Slirpium, Lib. xi., c. xxix., p. 428, 1536. 



X Dc Hisloiia Slirpium, pp. 824-25. 154.2. 



§ Biographic Universalle, Tom. xxix., p. 542. Note. 



II Histoire des Croisades, 4lh ed., Paris : 1826. Tom. iii., pp. 348-9. 



IT Annales de I'Agriculture Fraiicaise. 



** Naturalis Historim opus novum. Frankfort: 1551. 



tt Memoire sur le Mais. 1784. 



\\ Feuille d'Agriculture du Canton de Vaud. T. vii. 



