394 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



above the level of the sca.^ This maize was perhaps not 

 cultivated, but in this case it would be yet more 

 interesting, as an indication of the origin of the species. 



Although America has been explored by a^ great 

 number of botanists, none have found maize in the 

 conditions of a wild plant. 



Augubte de Saint-Hilaire ^ thought he recognized the 

 wild type in a singular variety, of which eaih grain is 

 enclosed wiihin its sheath or bract. It is known at 

 Buenos-Ayres under the name jnnsigallo. It is Zea Mayf^ 

 funicata of Saint- Hilaire, of which Bonafous gives an 

 illustration, pi. 5, his, under the name Zea crTjptosperma. 

 Lindley^ also gives a description and a drawing from 

 seeds brought, it is said, from the Rockv Mountains, but 

 this is not Confirmed by recent Califom'an Horas. A 

 yourg Guarany, born in Paraguay on its frontiers^ had 

 recognized this maize, and told Saint-Hilaire that it grew 

 in the damp forests of his country. This is very in- 

 sufficient proof that it is indigenous. No traveller to my 

 knowledge has seen this plant wild in Paraguay or 

 Brazil. But it is an interesting fact that it has been 

 cultivated in Europe, and that it often passes into the 

 ordinary state of maize. Lindley observed it when it 

 had been only two or three years in cultivaiion, and 

 Professor Radic obtained from one sowing 225 ears of the 

 form tuniccda, and 105 of the common form with naked 

 grains."^ Evidently this form, which might be believed a 

 true species, but whose country is, however, doubtfub is 

 hardly even a race. It is one of th e innumerable varieties, 

 more or less hereditary, of which botanists who are con- 

 sidei ed authorities make only a single species, because of 

 their want of stability and the transitions which they 

 frequently present. 



On the condition of Zea Mays, and its habitation in 

 America before it was cultivated, we have nothing but con- 



* Darwin, Tar. of Plants and Anim. under Domesf., i. p. 320. 



* A. de Saint-Hi'laire, Aim. Sc. Nat., xvi. p. 1-13. 

 8 Linrlley, Joitrn. of the Hortic. Soc, i. p. 114. 



* I quote tliese facts from Wittmack, Ueher Antilcen Ma'is aim Nord 

 ud Slid Aitierika, p. 87, in Berlin Antlivopol. Ges., Nov. lU, 1879. 



