AMERICAS CHIEF CROP 313 



plants that were the progenitors of the present 

 developed product. 



The plant from which Indian corn was un- 

 questionably developed, or at all events a very 

 closely related form that has not been greatly 

 modified from the primeval type, is a gigantic 

 grass that still grows in Mexico and is a valuable 

 forage plant. It is called Reana luocurians, or 

 Euchlcena Meocicana, Its familiar name is 

 Teosinte. 



This is a tall, sturdy plant, resembling corn as 

 to its stem and stalk, but having a rachis like 

 wheat or barley or rice that by comparison with 

 the ear of the cultivated corn is insignificant. 



In the wild teosinte each grain shells out 

 readily like oats, wheat, or barley, and has an ex- 

 ceedingly hard, polished, chitinous covering for 

 protection against marauding birds and animals. 

 The grains are arranged in single opposite rows 

 on a fragile rachis, like that of other grains such 

 as rye, barley, and rice ; the cob of the developed 

 corn being wholly a product of man and being 

 required to hold the numerous large, fat, nutri- 

 tious kernels which it has been induced to pro- 

 duce through centuries of cultivation. 



Teosinte, when brought under cultivation at 

 the present time, after a few generations in the 

 new and more favorable environment, like all 



