Vol.. XXIII. Xo. I.] 



POPULAE SCIENCE NEWS. 



^onje, Banij, aqd Gardeq. 



MAIZE. 



BY I'RKUK. LEROY SARGENT. 

 PART I. 



■■.\11 .iroiind the happy village 

 Stood tlie maize-field's green and shining. 

 Waved the green plumes of Mondamin. 

 Filling all the land with plenty." 



— Longfellow. 



A recent writer* states that there are known at 

 present • more than one hundred varieties of maize, 

 which differ among them.selves more than those of 

 any other cereal. Some come to maturity in two 

 months: others require seven. Some are as manv 

 feet high as others are inches. Some have kernels 

 eleven times larger thau others. Thev vary simi- 

 larly in shape and size of ears, color of the grain 

 (white, yellow, purple, striped, etc.) and also in 

 physical and chemical composition — in short, in all 

 those characteristics in which the species of a genus 

 differ among themselves." Indeed some of the 

 forms are so strongly marked that Bonafousf in his 

 magnificent work on the subject, describes and fig- 

 ures several of them as distinct species. In spite of 

 these great differences, however, and although there 

 is evidence that the more highly developed kinds 

 will not hybridize, the utmost extremes are so well 

 connected by intermediate forms that the botanists 

 of today consider them all to have been produced in 

 cultivation, and to represent therefore only different 

 \arieties of one species. 



To this species the name of Xea Mai/s was given 

 by Linna-us. It is somewhat unfortunate that the 

 (ireek name Zea should have been chosen, for the 

 ancient Greeks never saw our plant, and what thev 

 did call Zea was a "spelt." {Triiuuiii Sptlin L.) 

 which does not even look like Maize. The specific 

 name is more significant, for it is a Latinization of 

 the llaytian name Mahiz. which was the one first 

 learned by the Spaniards. It was first introduced 

 into liotany in 1570 by Matthioli, who insisted that 

 the plant was of American origin and should there- 

 fore be known by its American name. 



In those days it was not generally believed that 

 maize was of American origin, and it has been a 

 much-disputed question ever since. The prevalent 

 notion of the time was that the plant came from the 

 East and was introduced into Europe directly from 

 Turkey, and for this reason it was called '• Turkey 

 wheat." which name still persists in the modern 

 Frenchman's bit ilu iicrrjiiie, and the German's 

 tiirkisehe Weizeii. That the existence of these names 

 proves nothing, however, as to the origin of maize, 

 is well shown by A. DeCandoUe.J who has given 

 the subject very thorough study. He points out 

 that in Lorraine and the Vosges the plant is called 

 Roman corn; in Tuscany, Sicilian corn; in Sicilv, 

 Indian corn; in the Pyrenees. Spanish corn: in 

 Provence, Barbary corn ; in Turkey, Egyptian corn ; 

 while in Egypt it becomes Syrian ditoira. Such 

 evidence calls to mind the French name of our thor- 

 oughly American Turkey — le coq tVImle (fowl of 

 India) and leads us to suspect that the European 

 names of maize may be quite as misleading in their 

 implications of origin. 



.\ more conclusive argument adduced by the 

 same author, agaiiist the theory of oriental origin, 

 is the fact that neither in Hebrew nor in Sanskrit is 

 ■there any name for maize. Of equal force against 

 the theory that it c;ime from Egypt is his statement 

 that none of the Egyptian monuments have offered 

 any trace of either specimens or drawings of this 

 plant, and in view of the ample records of the cult- 

 ure of other grains We should have every reason to 

 expect as much evidence in regard to maize if it had 

 been cultivated by the :uicienf Egyptians. The 



finding of an ear of maize in a sarcophagus at 

 Thebes, has been oft'ered as evidence upon this 

 point, but there can be little doubt that the finder 

 was the victim of an Arab impostor. 



Finally a claim of Chinese origin has been made 

 on the strength of an ancient work by Li-clii-icliin 

 in which appears a drawing of maize. The drawing 

 unquestionably represents a maize plant, but the 

 work itself is of uncertain date and there is not suf- 

 ficient evidence to prove that the book was w ritten 

 before the time when maize could have been intro- 

 duced into China from the West. 



In marked contrast to these doubtful proof's :ire 

 the numerous evidences which have been brought 

 forward by DeCandolle. Pickering and others to 

 show that America was the original home of maize, 

 and that it was first cultivated by the natives of our 

 country. -At the time of the discovery of the new 

 continent, maize was one of the staples of agricul- 

 ture from the La Plata valley to the United States. 

 It had names in all languages. The natives planted 

 it around their temporary dwelling where thev did 

 not form a fixed population. 1 " The first travellers 

 w ho described the productions of the New World 

 speak of the plant as entirely now to them. Later 

 investigiition show that •the burial mounds of the 

 natives of North Americii. who preceded those 01 

 our day. the tombs of the Incas, :ind the catacombs 

 of Peru contiiin ears and groins of maize, just as 

 the monuments of ancient Egypt contain grains of 

 barley, wheat and millet-seed. In Mexico, a god- 

 dess who bore a name derived from that of maize, 

 (ci)iteiit/ from ciiitli.) answered to the Ceres of the 

 Cjreeks. for the first fruits of the maize harvest were 

 offered to her. as the first fruits of our [European] 

 cereals were oft'ered to the Greek goddess. At Cusco. 

 the virgin of the sun. oft'ered sacrifices of bread 

 made from Indian corn. Nothing is better calcula- 

 ted to show the antiquity and generality of the cul- 

 tivation of a plant than this intimate connection 

 with the religious rites of the ancient inhabitants. "|| 



It is recorded that nearly five centuries before the 

 voyages of Columbus. Thorwald found in 'V^ineiand 

 a wooden '■ Konihidlinr." or corn-shed, and noon 

 the authority of Pickering§ we rmry accept this as 

 evidence that maize was cultivated in the northern 

 part of our country, even at that remote period. 



When it was that maize began to be cultivated, 

 we have no means of knowing: but that its cultiva- 

 tion must have been extremely ancient is well 

 shown by Darwinjjf. He cites Tschudi as describing 

 two kinds of maize, now extinct or not known in 

 Peru, which were taken from tombs of a date prob- 

 ably prior to the dynasty of the Incas. But even 

 stronger evidence of antiquity is offered by the fact 

 that Darwin himself found on the coast of Peru 

 several ''heads of maize, together with eighteen spe- 

 cies of recent shells embedded in a beach which had 

 been upraised at least S5 feet above the level of the 

 sea." 



Closely connected with this problem of when the 

 cultivation of maize began, are the questions as to 

 when and by what people its domestication was first 

 accomplished. On the evidence of traditions and 

 what is known of the geographical distribution of 

 the native people at the time of the Spanish con- 

 quests, DeCandolle has come to the conclusion 

 that the nation called ■■Cliihchas." living in New 

 Granada, were the earliest cultivators of the plant, 

 and that from them it spread through the Aztecs 

 of Mexico to the wild tribes of the North, and 

 through the Incas of Peru to the southern regions of 

 South America. 



It was one of the first of the New World produc- 

 tions to be introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, 

 and recouds of the time show that its spread was 1 

 rapid and extensive. Today it is cultivated in 



almost all parts of the world having a suitable cli- 

 mate, the only considerable exception being the 

 tropical islands of the Pacific. 



There can be little doubt that the wild plant must 

 at one time have flourished in sub-tropical America, 

 hut botanists have sought in vain for any specimens 

 of wild maize, and are forced to the conclusion that 

 like wheat, lentil, chick-pea and a few other plants 

 which are unknown in the wild state, the original 

 species is extinct. We see therefore that the very 

 existence of maize today is owing to its usefulness 

 to man. 



In the extent and variety of its uses but few plants 

 will bear comparison with maize. Indian meal, 

 corn-starch, hominy, pop-corn and sweet-corn attest 

 its food value; and of scarcely less importance is its 

 use as fodder for domestic animals, for besides the 

 extensive use of grain, there is the utilization of the 

 juicy stalks and leaves, and now that ensilage is 

 coming into such favor the consumption of "cow- 

 corn " has become very large. 



The plant's capabilities for producing alcoholic 

 drinks were very early discovered, and it is rather 

 curious that one of our best evidences of the antiq- 

 uity of its cultivation comes to us through the state- 

 ment of Humbolt that the Toltecs, by whom maize 

 was introduced into Mexico, produced from the corn 

 a spirituous liquor allied -chicha," and he adds that 

 drunkenness became very frequent under the Aztec 

 dynasty. Cliielia is still made by the natives of 

 South America, and in Mexico a similar liquor 

 ciiUcd j)ii/i/iie i/e i/Kiltiz is made by fermenting the 

 saccharine juice expressed from the stalks. 



Perhaps the most singular use to which the maize 

 fruit has been put. is that of fuel, as has sometimes 

 happened in the treeless regions of the West, when 

 both wood and coal were dearer than corn — and a 

 thoroughly good substitute it proved. 



Every part is utilized, even to the husks which 

 are used by paper-makers as a material for pulp, bv 

 upholsterers as filling tor mattrasses and the like, 

 by the orange-growers of Southern Europe as pack- 

 ing for their fruit, by South Americans as cigarette 

 wrappers, and by farmers generally they ate much 

 used for a kind of coarse braided mat. 



Other minor uses will readily occur to anyone 

 who has lived in corn-growing regions, but enough 

 has been said to make it plain that maize must rank 

 among the most useful plants know n to man. 

 {C'oudiuled in next number.) 



*Rev. Geo. Ilenslow, in Enc. Brit. 



fIJistoire Nuturelle, Agricolci. et A'cviionnqiie fit' 



Mtiis, Piuis, 1836. 

 JOrigin of cultivated plants. 

 IDeCandolle. 1. c. 

 II ibid. 



§Chronological History of Plants. 

 §§Variation of plants and animals under Domes- . 



tication. 



[Original in The Popular Science NtKs.] 

 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



BY LEILA W. USHER. 



TiiK art of gardening was known in very remote 

 ages, and the kitchen garden of the ancients con- 

 tained, mainly, the vegetables, roots and herbs of 

 which we to-day make use. In the same inclosure 

 was found the kitchen garden, the orchard, and the 

 flower garden and all properly irrigated by means 

 of aqueducts of tiles, wood, or lead pipes, so that 

 each plant received the necessary moisture. The 

 famous garden of Alcinous, from which the art of 

 gardening is said to be traced, is thus described bv 

 Homer in the Odyssev: — 



" Close by the gates a spacious garden lies. 

 From storms defended and inclement skies. 

 Four acres the allotted space of ground. 

 Fenced with ;i green enclosure all around. 



