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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



Two of these plants had supernumerary or 'B' 

 type chromosomes. The numbers and positions 

 of the knobs on the 10 normal chromosomes are 

 summarized in table 19. These facts will ulti- 

 mately be significant when we have more data 

 on knob numbers and positions from other 

 types of maize (Mangelsdorf and Cameron, 

 1942). For the present we can say only that 

 the knob numbers are intermediate between the 

 high knob numbers of Western Mexico and the 

 low numbers of the Mexico City-Toluca region. 

 The more significant measurements and 

 observations made on the collection are sum- 

 marized in table 18. Average values for the 

 four most useful criteria of tassel morphology 

 are shown graphically in figure 19, where they 

 are compared with similar averages made on 

 collections from pueblo-dwelling Indians in 

 Arizona and New Mexico ; from Pima, Papago, 



GLUME 

 LENGTH 



TASSEL 

 BRANCH 

 NUMBER 



SUBSESSILE 

 SPIKELETS 



CONDENSED 

 INTERNODES 



Figure 19. — Average values for four characters of the 

 male inflorescence (the tassel) of Beals' collections 

 of Tulukenio maize and Black maize. Narrow 

 lines show averages of other collections for com- 

 parison: Mex. Pyr., Mexican Pyramidal from 

 Mexico City; P.-P., Pima-Papago; Pueblo (Carter, 

 Anderson, Cutler collections). The four scales 

 used from top to bottom are glume length in 

 millimeters, tassel branch number (values run 

 from right to left for this scale), percentage of 

 subsessile upper spiklets on tassel branches and 

 percentage of condensed internodes on tassel 

 branches. 



and allied tribes ; and from Mexican Pyramidal 

 varieties collected near Mexico City. 



It will be seen that insofar as their tassels 

 are concerned both the Tulukenio varieties and 

 the Black maize varieties are intermediate be- 

 tween the Mexican Pyramidal and the Pima- 

 Papago. On tassel morphology alone they are 

 even closer to the latter than to the former. 

 Since, so far as we can tell from the ears, Pima- 

 Papago maize is very similar to that of the 

 prehistoric Basket Makers (Anderson and 

 Blanchard, 1942) , this strengthens the sug- 

 gestion made above that one element in the 

 ancestry of this Tarascan maize may have been 

 a primitive small-cobbed race somewhat like 

 that of the Basket Makers. A diagram based 

 on ear and kernel morphology would also 

 demonstrate that both of these Tarascan types 

 are intermediate between Mexican Pyramidal 

 and Pima-Papago, but it would not indicate as 

 close a resemblance to the latter as is given by 

 the tassel morphology alone. 



SUMMARY 



The maize varieties from two adjacent 

 Tarascan villages are described and their 

 characteristics are recorded in detail. While 

 as a whole they are more or less similar to 

 collections of Mexican Pyramidal maize from 

 Mexico, D. F., they can be divided into at least 

 three subraces. For two of these, the "Tulu- 

 kenio" and the "Black" maize, there is enough 

 material to define the central core of their 

 variation. Black maize is grown in gardens 

 below 8,500 feet. Characteristically it has 

 large, dark, smoothly dented kernels on a taper- 

 ing ear about 15 cm. long. While it has certain 

 technical resemblances to Pima-Papago maize 

 (low percentage of condensed internodes in 

 tassel, length of glume, etc.,) it differs only 

 slightly from Mexican Pyramidal. Tulukenio 

 varieties are grown above 8,500 feet in small 

 isolated plots in the mountains. They are even 

 more like Pima-Papago ; their tassels technically 

 are closer to the latter than to Mexican Pyram- 

 idal. They vary greatly in color, size and 

 shape, the largest ears being about the size of 

 Black maize. The kernels tend to be small, 

 more or less pointed, semidented; their seed 

 coats lightly stained or streaked with red. The 

 extreme variants of Tulukenio are small-cobbed, 



