6i6 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



of the earliest writers on German plants and published in 1539. But Bonafous,' 1532, 

 asserts the plant came from Arabia. In Kyber's Botany, 1552, an edition of Tragus, 

 com is called Turkish Korn, but in those days everything foreign was likely to be called 

 " Turkish;"* but he also calls it welschkorn and says (page 650) that everything strange 

 and hitherto unknown receives this name. Fuchsius,' 1542, also declares that com came 

 from Asia to Greece, thence to Germany. We may, therefore, assert with considerable 

 certainty that maize became known in Germany early in the sixteenth century. 



Ruellius,^ a native of France, 1536, asserts that maize came from Arabia and calls 

 it Turcicum fruntentum. This seems to indicate that he knew the grain in France. The 

 variety of names used for this grain in various parts of Prance, such as; " wheat of Turkey," 

 " wheat of Rome," " wheat of Barbary," " wheat of Gmana " and " wheat of Spain," 

 indicate that in the course of cultivation the seed had been received from diverse 

 sources. 



It was not vmtil after the year 1610, says Targioni-Tozzetti,' that maize found its way 

 through Spain and Sicily. Cardan,' iSS3. and Matthiolus, 1570, both Italians, mentioned 

 the plant in their writings, but the former does not affirm that it was known in Italy, nor 

 does the latter in his edition of 1645, and, indeed, says that it should be called " Indian 

 wheat " and not " Turkish wheat," because it came from the West Indies and not from 

 Asia nor from Turkey. In 1685, George de Turre ' says that the maize, or Turkish wheat, 

 was imported into Italy " since a few years." Ramusio,* who died in 1557, is quoted 

 by Pickering * as stating that the plant was first seen in Italy in his time. 



In Asia, we have record of the early introduction of com to Java by the Portuguese 

 in 1496, according to Rvrniphius.*" In 1521, maize was found by Magellan " at the island 

 of Limasava. In 1665, white and red varieties are mentioned by Nieuhoff at Batavia. 

 Adams,'" 1484, says of Borneo, that the magnificent maize springs up often in large and vivid 

 patches. Com reached China in 1516, according to Malte-Brun." Bretschneider '^ says 

 Li-shi-chen was the first Chinese author who mentioned com, the date being the close 

 of the sixteenth century. He states that maize came to China from central Asia. Com 

 is enimaerated by Thunberg,'* i775, as among the edible plants of Japan. At Lew Chew, 



^ Bonaious Hist. Nat. Mais 11. 1836. 

 'Brewer U. S. Census y.g^. 1880. 

 Flint Trans. N. Y. Agr. Soc. 292. 1849. 



* Ibid. 



' Targioni-Tozzetti Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 9:137. 1855. 



Trans. III. Agr. Soc. 472. 1856-57. 

 ' Turre, G. Dryadum 478. 1685. 



Pickering, C. Geog. Dist. Ans. Pis. Vt. ilizS- 1863. 



Ibid. 



" De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:950. 1855. 

 " Lives, Voy. Drake, Cavendish 33. 1854. 

 " Adams, A. Voy. Samarang 2:^2^. 1848. 

 " De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:950. 1855. 

 " Bretschneider, E. Bot. Sin. 59. 1882. 

 Thunberg, C. P. Fl. Jap. 2,7. 1784. 



