STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 613 



when they returned they brought back " a bunch of grapes and a new sowen ear of 

 wheat." Again, in 1002, Thorwald,^ on an island far to the westward of Vinland, " met 

 with a wooden Komhjaknr " (com shed?), but saw no other signs of inhabitants, nor of 

 wild beasts. 



The first mention in more modem time is in Florida and westward, where it was found 

 by Narvaez in 1528.^ Dtiring De Soto's invasion, 1540, maes was fotmd everywhere 

 along his route, from Florida, Alabama, to the upper part of Mississippi, probably on the 

 western bank of the Yazoo, in fields or stored in granaries. Ribault,' 1562, says the Florida 

 Indians sow their fields with Mahiz. When Cartier visited Hochelaga, now Montreal, 

 in 1535, that town was situated in the midst of extensive com fields, the grain " even as 

 the millet of Brazil, as great and somewhat bigger than small peason." The Indians 

 called the grain carracony and stored it in granaries situated on the top of their habitations. 

 \n 1613, Champlain * mentions com growing in fields " feebly scratched with hoes of wood 

 or bone " at Lake Coulonge, on the Ottawa River. In 1540, Colonado,' in marching 

 from Mexico to Quivira supposed by Bancroft * to be within the present territory of 

 Kansas found com everywhere in abundance, wherever arable soil, apparently, could 

 be found. He mentions that the Zuni Indians practiced irrigation. Alarcon,' in 1540, 

 foimd the Indians of the Colorado River growing abundance of corn as did Espijo in 



1583- 



The Navajo Indians have this tradition: " All the wise men being one day assembled, 

 a turkey hen came flying from the direction of the morning star and shook from her feather 

 an ear of blue com into the midst of the company."' At the present time, blue, yellow, 

 white, red and even black com is cultivated in New Mexico, the blue being predominant 

 and most esteemed.' In Virginia, in 1585, Sir Richard Grenville '" is recorded as having 

 destroyed the standing com of the natives. Heriot " 1586, mentions a kind of grain 

 called mayze in the West Indies. Com is mentioned by Strachey '^ under the name of 

 poketawes. In A True Declaration of Virginia}^ 1610, the com is said to grow to a height 

 of twelve or fourteen feet, " yielding some four, five, or six eares, on every stalke and in 

 every eare some five hundred, some seaven hundred comes." Com cultivated after the 

 Indian method was grown in 1608, the first successful attempt by Englishmen on record.'* 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 616. 1879. 



Smith, B. Rel. De Vaca 47. 1871. 



'Divers Voy. Amer. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 7:102. 1840. 



* Parkman, F. Pion. France 374. 1894. 25th Ed, 

 'Pacific R. R. Rpt. 3: 1 10. 1856. 



Bancroft, H. H. Native Races 1:538. 1875. 



' Whipple and Turner Pacific R. R. Rpt. 3: 1 12. 1856. 



' Bancroft, H. H. Native Races y. 83. 1882. 



Massie U. S. Pal. Off. Rpt. 346. 1852-53. 

 "Bancroft, G. Hist. t/. 5. 1:96. 1839. 



" Hariot, T. Narrative Va. 1588. Quaritch reprint 21. 1893. 

 Strachey, W. Traf. Ka. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 6: 116. 1849. 

 " True Dect. Va. 12. 1610. Force Coll. Tracts 3: No. i. 1844. 

 " U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 98. 1853. 



