6i8 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



" mayes, which wee call Guynnewheate." Maize is mentioned in the Congo by Father 

 Angelo ' in 1667 and by Father MeroUa' in 1682. In Barbot's Description of the Coasts 

 of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the sixteenth century, there is ample 

 mention of almost every kind of vegetable which might be looked for in this region but 

 not of maize, except in a misprint (page 14, Hakluyt Society Edition) for yams. Prosper 

 Alpinus,' who wrote of the agricultiare of Egypt in 1592, makes no mention of maize. In 

 1775, Forskal * found com Uttle cultivated and it then had not a name distinct from 

 Sorgho.' Delile's accoimt of the Egyptian name and tradition indicates that the plant 

 was received from the North by way of Syria and Turkey. Barth ' mentions finding 

 maize in northern Africa and Parkyns,' in Abyssinia. 



In Polynesia, com does not seem to be much grown. In 1595, Mendana * " sowed 

 maize before the Indians" in the Marquesas group. In 1792, "a little tolerably good 

 maize " was fovmd by Vancouver * at Tahiti. In the Fiji Islands, com is grown by the 

 white settlers but not as yet (1865) by the natives. There is but one kind, a small, yellow- 

 grained one, and it is called sila ni papalagi, foreign sila, by the natives. At Tongatabu, 

 in 1840, a little com was growing. " 



At the French exposition of 1852, specimens of maize were exhibited from Algeria, 

 Canada, Australia, Portugal, Himgary and Syria. At the London Exhibition of 1862, 

 200 varieties, collected by Professor Brignoli of the Modena Royal Botanical Gardens, 

 were shown.'' In 1880, the writer hastily collected from northern America and exhibited 

 before the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, 307 varieties. Although these are but 

 a tithe of the various kinds that could be gathered together from the various regions of 

 the globe, yet they all belong to one botanical species, Zea mays Linn., although Steudel '* 

 in his synopsis of plants catalogs six others, namely: Zea hirta Bonaf., the hairy maize, 

 from California; Z. rostrata Bonaf., of Peru; Z. macrosperma Klotz., of Peru; Z. curagua 

 Molina, of Chile; Z. cryptosperma Bonaf., of Buenos Aires; Z. erythrolepis Bonaf., or red- 

 husked com. In popular language, we have hard corns and soft corns; flints, dents, pop 

 corns and sweets; yellow, red, white, black and variegated and many other colors and 

 shades. The rows vary in varieties from 8 to 32 and in individual specimens from 4 to 

 48; the length of ear, in varieties from 2 inches to 12, in specimens from i inch to 16. 

 Some ears are cylindrical, others tapering, others forming a cone, and some small pop 

 corns are globular egg-shaped. The variation in the form of kernel is also as marked. 



' Churchill Co//. Foy. 1:491. 1744. 

 Churchill Co//. 7oy. 1:563. 1744. 

 ' Churchill Co//. Fov. 5:196. 1746. 

 Pickering, C. Ceog. Dist. Arts. Pis. Pt. 1:135. 1863. 



Ibid. 



Barth, H. Trav. No. Cent. Afr. 276. 1857. 

 ' Parkyns, M. Life Abyss. 1:306. 1856. 



Dalrymple Co//. Voy. 1:70. 1770. 

 Vancouver, G. No. Pacific Voy. 1:339. 1801. 



' Seemann, B. Fl. Viti. $27. 1865-73. 



" Wilkes, C. U. S. Explor. Exped. 3:32. 1845. 



" Simmonds, P. L. Trop. A gr. 306. 1889. 



