12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



as the Mexicans call it, mais de coyote (Lupus latrans). 

 Harshburger says that our cultivated maize is of hybrid origin prob- 

 ably starting as a sport of teosinte which then crossed itself with its 

 normal ancestor, producing" our cultivated corn.^ Plants which by 

 hybridizing and cultivation will produce maize are not found outside 

 of Mexico and for this reason, if no other, it would seem conclusive 

 that maize had its origin there. As to the exact locality. Harsh- 

 burger who has made a special study of the plant and its origin, says 

 that it originated in all probability north of the Isthmus of Tehuan- 

 tepec, and south of the. 22° of north latitude near the ancient seat 

 of the Maya tribes.^ In this connection it is worthy of notice that 

 nearly all the traditions of the Indians, not pure myths, point to the 

 far southwest as the mother country of the corn plant. 



An important proof of the cultivation of maize in America before 

 the Columbian epoch is the fact that the kernels and cobs in a charred 

 state have been found in ancient pits and refuse heaps all over eastern 

 North America. Impressions of the kernels have been taken from 

 Precolumbian mounds and the actual ears and cobs from the 

 storage places of the Pueblos, Cliff Dwellers, Aztecs and Peruvians 

 where time and crumbling ruins had sealed up the stores. No Ameri- 

 can archeologist doubts the cultivation of maize in America in Pre- 

 Columbian times. The revelations of his own spade and trowel assert 

 the fact in no uncertain way. 



The name maize is derived from the Arawak mahiz. Columbus 

 found maize growing on the island of Hayti and his mention of it is 

 the first record of that plant. In the Life of Columbus, By His Son, 

 under the date of November 5, 1492, is the following note : 



There was a great deal of tilled land some sowed with those roots, 

 a sort of beans and a sort of grain they call maize, which was well 

 tasted, baked, or dried and made into flour.^ 



This is the first historical reference to maize which it is possible to 

 find in any work and the first use of the term maize.* 



1 Harshburger. Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, v. t, no. 2. 



2 Harshburger. Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, i 1399. 



3 Life of Christopher Columbus, By His Son, in Pinkerton's Voyages and 

 Travels. Lond. 1832. 12 :38. 



■* Among the first probable references to Indian corn is one by Capt. 

 John De Verazzano, who early in the i6th century coasted along the middle 

 Atlantic coast. In his report to the King of France, under date of 1524, 

 32 years after the discovery, he said in describing the Indians whom he 

 saw : " Their food is a kind of pulse which there abounds, different in 

 color and size from ours and of a very delicious flavor." In the light of 

 subsequent descriptions by other explorers it seems very probable if not 

 certain that the pulse was maize 



