Imp orta ncf. and his Tory \\ 



time of the Spanish conquest, and considered themselves CHAP, 

 aboriginal, may have been the first to possess and cultivate 

 maize. Some later botanists are inclined to consider, how- 

 ever, that it is of Mexican origin. 



The maize plant is not known to exist in a truly wild 

 state, i.e. reproducing itself spontaneously from self-sown seed ; 

 no plant has been found which can be looked upon as the true 

 parent form, unchanged by cultivation. Some botanists are 

 inclined to think that maize is a descendant of the Teosinte 

 plant of Mexico, Euchlcena mexicana, with which it can be 

 hybridized ; or that the two had a common prototype (East, 5). 



11. History. — Maize has been cultivated by the inhabi- 

 tants of North, Central, and South America since prehistoric 

 times. The early American explorers found the Indians 

 cultivating it ; Columbus, writing to Ferdinand and Isabella 

 of Spain, mentions maize fields eighteen miles in length. 

 Hochelaga, which later became the city of Montreal, was 

 situate in the midst of large maize fields when Cartier visited 

 it in 1535 (De Candolle, 1). Hakluyt (1) quaintly and 

 graphically describes the new cereal as "a corne called maiz, 

 in bignesse of a pease, the eare whereof is much like a teasell ". 

 Maize-grain has been found in the Inca cemetery at Ancon, 

 Peru, which is nearly contemporary with the discovery of 

 America (De Candolle, 1). It was, even in those days, a staple 

 crop from the valley of the La Plata to that of the Mississippi. 

 Investigations show that it was grown by the Chibchas of 

 New Granada, the Mayas of Central America, the Nahuas, and 

 their successors the Toltecs and Aztecs of Mexico, and by the 

 Incas in Peru. 



De Candolle concludes that though these civilizations 

 date at earliest from the beginning of the Christian Era, the 

 cultivation of maize was doubtless still earlier. 



After an exhaustive survey of the philological proofs of its 

 origin, Harshberger (1) concludes : (1) that maize was intro- 

 duced into the region now comprised in the United States, 

 from two sources — from the tribes of Northern Mexico and the 

 Caribs in the West India Islands ; (2; that the Pueblos and 

 Northern Mexican tribes derived maize from Central Mexico ; 

 (3) that tribal connections existed between the North and South 

 American continents, and that an interchange of products was 



