342 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



A plant cultivated for so long a time by the Indians and civilized man has 

 naturally given rise to diverse forms which we regard as nothing more than 

 races of the very polymorphic species Zea Mays. 



Some years ago Dr. Watson obtained from Moro Leon, through Prof. 

 Duges, some corn which he considered a new species, calling it Zea canina. 

 He says: 



The natural supposition was that we had here at least the original wild state of our 

 cultivated maize. A careful comparison of the two, as thorough as the material at hand 

 of the cultivated forms would permit, has led me first to doubt the probability of this, and 

 now to consider the form in question a distinct species. The differences upon which this 

 conclusion is based are in the habit of growth, the arrangement of the staminate spikelets, and 

 the nervation of their glumes, the form of the glumes of the pisttillate flowers, and the 

 ready disarticulation of the ripened ear. 



Dr. Harshberger, who is certainly a most careful observer, and who car- 

 ried on some most interesting experiments on hybrids, considers our maize 

 of hybrid origin and Zea canina is a hybrid of corn and Euchlaena. He says : 



Maize relates itself botanically to a native Mexican grass, teosinte {Euchlaena mex- 

 icana) ; and the fertile hybrids of this grass and maize are known, producing a plant 

 described by Watson as Zea canina. From the peculiar behavior of these hybrids, the 

 writer has suggested that our cultivated maize is of hybrid origin, probably starting 

 as a sport of teosinte, which then crossed itself with the normal ancestor, producing our 

 cultivated corn. This is speculative, but there cannot be any doubt that the close relation- 

 ship of maize and teosinte points the way to the determination of the botanical characters 

 of the original wild corn. Recently, Montgomery has suggested a theory as to the 

 ^nature of the maize ear, in which, in conclusion, he states that corn and teosinte may 

 have had a common origin, and that in the process of evolution the cluster of pistillate 

 spikes in teosinte were developed from the lateral branches of a tassel like structure, 

 while the corn ear developed from the central spike. It is probable that the progenitor 

 of these plants was a large, much-branched grass, each branch being terminated by a tassel- 

 like structure bearing hermaphrodite flowers. 



Corn holds the first place in the list of crops produced in this country, 

 and North America produces four times as much as the remainder of the 

 world. According to C. P. Hartley, Europe stands second, South America 

 third, and Africa fourth. As a corn-producing country the United States has 

 no rival; Argentina stands second, Hungary third, and Italy fourth. The 

 average corn yields in four central states for five years, 1902-1906, were as 

 follows : 



State. Bushels. 



Illinois 342,115,835 



Iowa 301,666,176 



Nebraska 239,835,262 



Missouri 210,082,426 



Maize is one of the most important cereals of North America, being used 

 as a food for man and stock, in the manufacture of starch and glucose, and in 

 medicine, the corn silk being used as a mild stimulant and diuretic. The oil 

 from the embryo is a yellow viscid transparent liquid having a peculiar odor 

 of corn meal. The silk contains maizenic acid. 



Injurious properties. In many sections of the country where corn is grown 

 and cattle allowed to feed on corn stalks, a disease occnrs which has been 

 called the corn stalk disease. This has been attributed to various causes such 

 as corn smut, a bacterial disease, nitrate poisoning, bacterial poisoning, and 

 impaction of the stomach. Corn stalks are not easily digested and it is not to 

 be wondered at that impaction should occur when cattle do not have access to 

 plenty of water. 



