354 



Maize in Mexico. 



Vol. XII. 



sect is Romev;hat migratory, though I think 

 it never flies far. But I can say that at my 

 place, some miles distant in the country, 

 where, however, all the farmers round culti- 

 vate the plum unsuccessfully, I have had 

 very full success by following the mode 

 pointed out. 



I have observed, in a previous number of 

 your journal, that both a correspondent and 

 yourself recommend depositing a pile of 

 fresh stable manure round the trunks of 

 plum trees, just before they come into blos- 

 som, or soon after, in order to prevent the 

 insects from attacking the fruit by the odor 

 which rises from the manure. It has struck 

 me since, that something of the same effect 

 may follow from making a swine yard of a 

 small stone fruit orchard. I find that a 

 dozen hogs, kept in a space large enough 

 for twenty or thirty trees, give it, for the 

 time it is occupied by them, quite an atmos- 

 phere of their own, which the delicate nerves 

 of the curculio may not be able to bear. — 

 Horticulturist. 



Maize in Mexico. 



From the Vienna Zeitung— by H. Carl Heller Trans- 

 lated by E. Goodrich Smith, of the Patent Office. 



Maize, (zea mais Linnaeus,) not only on 

 account of its elegant structure, splendid 

 leaves, delicate inflorescence, and variety of 

 colour of its pliant stalk, is one of the most 

 beautiful of the grass kind, but likewise one 

 of the most useful, and indeed, for Mexico 

 and a large part of America, truly the most 

 useful of them. 



Its beauty the Mexicans have at all times 

 acknowledged ; they yet here adorn the al- 

 tars in the churches and chapels with the 

 stalks of maize, in which are twined flowers. 

 Among the ancient Mexicans, maize was a 

 sign in the calendar, and a holy ornament 

 upon their groves. 



The Incas of Peru cultivated maize in 

 their gardens as elegant plants, and among 

 artistic works in gold of the ancient Peruvi- 

 ans, the imitations of the maize plant are 

 the most admirable. 



From what has been mentioned, the value 

 of this plant to the inhabitants of America 

 is evident, as well as the proof that its cul- 

 ture was known, and especially in Mexico, 

 long before the discovery of the new world. 



It is well established, that maize was not 

 known in Europe till after the conquest of 

 Mexico, and we know, likewise, that Ferdi- 

 nand Cortez, after his first return to the 

 court of Charles V., 1519, among the pre- 

 sents from Mexico, had some ears of maize. 



Notwithstanding that, we cannot certainly 



fix upon Mexico as the true native country 

 of this plant, yet America was indeed so, for 

 only the Mexicans, the inhabitants of Hayti, 

 and some natives of South America, had any 

 peculiar names for maize — a circumstance 

 that is not without importance, because we 

 may assume that an object for which any 

 language has no designation, is of foreign 

 origin. 



Thus, for example, the Indians of Mexico 

 have no word for wheat, barley, oats, apple, 

 pear, grape, fig, sweet orange, &c., which 

 they designate by the Spanish words, trigo, 

 sevada, avena, manzana, pera, uva, figo, 

 narranja, &c., but for all domestic fruits 

 and plants they have, as tlaolli (zea mais,) 

 choyoteslle, (lycios edulis,) mamei, (mameia 

 Americana,) pitaya, (cactus pitoga,) cacahu- 

 ates, (arrachis subterranea seu hypogea?) 

 maguey, (agave Americana,) ^'omaZZ, (solnum 

 lycopersicum.) 



Our word maize comes from the Haytien 

 word mahiz, from whence it is formed by 

 corruption. 



The Chinese and Japanese have also a 

 peculiar word, though it was already known 

 among these nations before the discovery of 

 America. Thus the Chinese call maize ya- 

 chu-chu, corn of chu or ya (kidney) or yu 

 my, rice, resembling a kidney. The Japan- 

 ese call it nanhamthbi, that is, corn of new 

 bran, or, by nick-name, outlandish (foreign) 

 corn, as the Germans, for example, call it 

 Turkish wheat. It is, therefore, more than 

 probable that the maize of the new world 

 came to the old as an exchange, for had the 

 Asiatic people carried maize to America, 

 they would also have planted the cereals far 

 more important for the old world. If, then, 

 we admit that all men sprung from one stock, 

 it must be that the first inhabitants of Ame- 

 rica separated from their Asiatic brethren 

 before the cultivation of the cereals were 

 known. 



Notwithstanding, maize is nowhere found 

 in the wild state, for as to that wild maize 

 of Dr. Hernandez, it is very much as with 

 his wild wheat, which he would have it he 

 had discovered, and which he named triti- 

 cum michoucum, but which is nothing but 

 triticum compositum, and came from Eu- 

 rope. 



We often find in Mexico, single plants of 

 maize which grow self-sown, and flourish 

 without culture, and though they may stand 

 miles from any inhabited places, they cannot 

 be considered wild, as notwithstanding the 

 often monstrous variety, they always bear 

 the characteristics of cultivated maize. By 

 the parrots, for example, which come from 

 the east, from the terra caliento to the terra 



