148 The Botanical Gazette. [March 
dependent of their surroundings and could, by planting crops 
which they afterwards harvested and stored in granaries, eke 
out an existence. 
An ethno-botanical study throws light upon the pastdis 
tribution of plants. I have at some length shown? that a 
study of the native uses of Maize, etc., leads to the belief that 
Indian corn was a native of southern central Mexico and from 
there by trade and barter was Carried to the farthest points in 
North and South America. Another example is found into 
bacco which was universally distributed throughout the Amer 
can continents. The distribution of tobacco, however, - 
complicated by there being two or three species, which wert 
used in different parts of the western hemisphere. One spe 
cies (Nicotiana rustica) was cultivated by the Indians in New 
Mexico and Arizona, as observed by Dr. Edw. Palmer. At 
other species (Nicotiana quadrivalvis) was cultivated by the 
Indians from Missouri to Oregon. One or two species at 
recorded as having been cultivated in California.* One quo 
tation will show that it was cultivated widely. Hernandez 
Oviedo in his ‘Historia general de las Indias” (1535) %& 
e : 
oder beide Oeffnungen in die N asenlécher passten; dena & 
Insulaner rauchten ihren Tabak durch die Nase.”* 
*Maize: A botani . 9 Poe, 
Univ. of Pa, 1: ‘is and economic study. Contrib. Bo 
®U. S. Dept. Agr. Rep. 1886: 76, Te 
bak 2 B. Reicuensacu, Die Pflanzen im Dienste der Menschheit. 1 D* 
