lO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The names applied to maize during the i6th century in Europe 

 have confused some writers. It was variously called Roman corn, 

 Turkish wheat, Sicilian corn, Spanish corn, Guinea corn, Egyptian 

 corn and Syrian dourra. The people or localities after which the 

 corn was named, however, universally disclaimed all knowledge of 

 its origin and referred it to some other source, and so named it ; thus 

 the Turks called it Egyptian corn and the Egyptians always referred 

 to it as Syrian dourra, each in turn disclaiming its origin. Possibly 

 the most widespread name by which maize was known in Europe 

 was Turkish wheat which was the name generally used by the Eng- 

 lish. . The name seems to have been first used by the botanist, Reul- 

 lins,^ in 1536, and later, in 1552, Tragus represented a maize plant 

 in his Stirpium calling it Frumentum turcicum, but after- 

 ward, having read some vague reference to a plant thought to be 

 similar he conceived the idea that it must be a species of Typhia 

 grown in Bactriana. Other writers, however, denied this, Matthiole 

 in 1570, Dodens in 1583 and Camerarius in 1588, all asserting its 

 American origin.^ 



iD'Herbelot, the oriental scholar, thought he had discovered maize 

 in the references of the Persian historian, Mourkoud, who lived in 

 the 15th century and who recorded that Rous, son of Japhet, sowed 

 a certain seed on the shores of the Caspian sea.^ He could not, of 

 course, substantiate his belief but his statements at the time had a 

 certain weight. Candolle * cites the finding of an ear of corn in an 

 Egyptian sarcophagus at Thebes by Rifaud but says tliat the inci- 

 dent was probably the result of a trick played by an Arab imposter.^ 

 If maize had grown in Egypt, says Candolle, " it would have been 

 connected with religious ideas like all other remarkable plants." He 

 further cites that Ebn Baithar, an Arab physician, who had traveled 

 through all the territory lying between Spain and Persia mentions no 

 plant which may be taken for maize. Maize was so little known as 

 a food plant in India in the i8th century that it was only grown in 

 gardens as an ornamental grass. "^ In China it has been cultivated 

 since the middle of the 17th century ^ although there are attempts to 

 show earlier introduction, which, however, are denied by the best 

 Chinese authorities. 



1 Reullins. De Natura Stirpium, p. 428. Cf. Candolle, p. 339- 



2 Candolle. Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 389. N. Y. 1885. 

 ^Ibid. p. 390. 



^Ibid. p. 390. 



^See Reply of President Price to Lundy's Paper Zea Mays. Numismatic 

 & Antiq. Soc. Trans. Phila. 1883. 

 6 Roxburgh. Flora Indica, III :568. 

 '' Candolle. Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 392. 



