APPENDIX 1 



VEGETAL REMAINS 



A number of plant remains were recovered at the Hosterman site 

 (39P07). These were identified for the Smithsonian Institution by 

 Hugh Carter, aided by Leonard Blake, Jolm Bower, and Winton 

 Meyer, of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis. 



They state : 



All of the carbonized cultivated plant remains are of varieties similar to those 

 grown in historic times by the Mandans and Omaha. The corn of this site has 

 few rows, usually 8 but occasionally 10 or 12, and belonged to the race called 

 Northern Flint (Brown and Anderson, 1947). The cupules are not as wide, the 

 kernels thicker and the shanks more slender than in the eastern forms of this 

 race. This difference may have been the result of mixture with corn from the 

 south and west or with the race of corn which was grown at this site in earlier 

 times. In the middle Mississippi Valley the Northern Flint race of corn came 

 later than a race with more rows of grains, smaller grains, and smaller but 

 deeper cupules. Com similar to this earlier race is found in pre-1000 A.D. 

 Among the cobs from 39P07 it was possible to distinguish quite readily a few 

 which were very much like the eastern form of Northern Flint. The fact that 

 these were quite distinct makes it likely that they were grown as a special 

 variety. The Mandans grew several kinds of corn and kept their varieties quite 

 distinct. 



The com is almost identical to that described by Nickerson and Hou (1954). 

 More collections of corn from dated sites over a wide area must be studied 

 before a reasonable explanation for the distribution of the various kinds of com 

 can be prepared. The median measurements of the corn follows : 



Median 

 for all 

 39P07 



Median 



for 

 extreme 

 variety 



Median 

 for all 



Northern 

 Flints 



Phillips 

 Ranch 



site 

 39ST14 



Row number 



Kernal thickness.-. 



Shank diameter 



Cupule width 



Cupule depth 



Number of rows 



4.0 



12.0 



9. 



4. 6 



of 



gram 



Corncobs measured. 



87 



12.0 

 . 5 



10 

 21 



4. 2 



17.0 



10. 



. 5 



12 

 4 



8 



3.4 



11.4 



8.0 



Several kinds of Cucurbita pepo, the common pumpkin and squash, were grown. 

 Most abundant, nearly 700 seeds, was a very small-seeded (9 X 5.5 mm.) variety, 

 probably like the one called "Mandan," with small green-striped fruit which sug- 



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