ESSAY ON INDIAN CORN. 155 



SO that it might literally be called " going though the cornfields." 

 It was sometimes gathered with the sickle, sometimes by passing 

 through it and plucking off the heads or ears, the reaper having an 

 apron or pouch to drop them into. 



Neither wheat nor rice were known to the first inhabitants of 

 America and we may with as much truth say that Indian corn, and 

 the potato were neither cultivated in Asia nor the South Sea 

 Islands, 

 i It is well known that maize was introduced into Japan by the Chi- 

 nese.i But there are no grounds for believing that the Chinese 

 ;, themselves possessed it until the sixteenth century. We persist then, 

 j with Humboldt, in believing that maize was not transported from the 

 : centre of Asia to the table lands of Mexico. And, moreover, if we 

 suppose that it was thus transported from Asia, how are we to account 

 for the infinite varieties found in America which, most certainly, were 

 i: not found in Asia ? Is it not more natural to suppose it to have 

 f originated where every variety of it was found, than where only one 

 [i or two varieties, and those doubtful ones, were ever known to grow 

 before the discovery of America by the Europeans ? We may re- 

 , mark, also, that if we suppose that a species of maize was actually 

 i known in Central Asia, or to the Chinese, it may have been the case 

 [. that the Indians of the extreme N. W. of Aw-erica had communica- 

 ;■ tion with the extreme N. E. of Asia, and that some one or two 

 'j species, by this means, found their way into Asia. If such commu- 

 nication existed, which we do not believe, the fact that it was found 

 1 in China and about the Himalaya, which is by no means established, 

 <; would not prove it to be indigenous to Asia. Or, if one or two spe- 

 k cies were actually found, the fact that there were no more in Asia, 

 and so many in America, would be a strong evidence of its being ex- 

 ! otic in Asia. 



, This accumulative evidence seems to us to be satisfactory and con- 

 P elusive. It was the custom among some of the earlier writers, to 

 ' speak of America as being sterile and wanting in the most important 

 ' vegetable productions. They little suspected the surpassing richness 

 of the country which had been made known to astonished Europe. 



1. Thunberg, Flora Japonica, p. 37. 



