LUTHER BURBANK 



The plant from which Indian corn was unques- 

 tionably 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 laxurians, or Euchleana 

 Mexicana. 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 exceedingly 

 hard, polished, chitenous covering, for protection 

 against marauding birds and animals. The grains 

 are arranged in two double 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, nutritious kernels 

 which it has been induced to produce 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 

 other cultivated plants tends to vary. Like many 

 of the half wild plants, teosinte has an inveterate 

 tendency to sucker from the root. 



[10] 





