54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Turcici nomen non ex vulgo accepit, quod ex Turcoriim terris 

 exportatum fuit, verum ah aristarum similUudine aliqua cum 

 crista seupluma in opice Turcorum capitibus imposita. 



Gerard, after describing several kinds of " Turkey wheat," 

 which were evidently species of maize, goes on to say : " These 

 kinds of grain were first brought into Spain and then into the 

 other provinces of Europe', not (as some suppose) out of Asia 

 Minor, which is the Turk's dominions, but out of America and 

 the Islands adjoining, as out of Florida and Virginia, or Norem- 

 bega, where they used to sow, or to set it, and to make bread 

 of it, where it groweth much higher than in other countries." 

 He also takes care to say that it was not known to the ancient 

 Greek and Latin authors. M. Parmentier is of opinion that it 

 had an American origin. 



M. E. Discourtilz also says maize was introduced into Europe 

 by the Spaniards, who brought it from Peru. It is important 

 to mention, also, the authority of Thomas Nuttall, who thinks 

 it was indigenous to tropical America. The same conviction 

 is expressed by the learned Mrs. Somerville. 



It remains to speak of the important conclusions of Baron 

 Humboldt. " It is no longer doubted," says this learned natu- 

 ralist, in his Essay on New Spain, "it is no longer doubted 

 among botanists, that maize, or Turkey corn, is a true American 

 grain, and that the old continent received it from the new." 

 Again, he says : " On the discovery of America by the Euro- 

 peans, the zea maize (tJaolli in the Aztec language, mahiz in 

 the Haitian) was cultivated from the most southern part of 

 Chili to Pennsylvania." Massachusetts, he might have said, 

 for such was the case. " According to a tradition of the Aztec 

 people, the Toltecs in the seventh century of our era, were the 

 first who introduced into Mexico the cultivation of maize, 

 cotton, and pimento. It might happen, however, that these 

 different branches of agriculture existed before the Toltecs, 

 and that this nation, the great civilization of which has been 

 celebrated by the historians, merely extended them successfully. 

 Hernandez informs us, that the Otamites even, who were only 

 a wandering and barbarous people, planted maize." Thus we 

 see it was cultivated in America long before the discovery, and 

 formed a most important article of food for centuries. 



