THE INDIAN CORN 167 



cultivated by the natives of both North and South America when 

 the continent was discovered by wliite men. The name " maize," 

 commonly applied to Indian com, is taken from a name that Columbus 

 found in use among the natives of Haiti. In the United States the 

 plant is usually known simply as " corn.'' In Great Britain, " corn " 

 is a general term for the cereal grains, and Zea Mays is called either 

 " Indian corn " or " maize." The cultivation of maize was introduced 

 into Europe very early, and it is now found in all the temperate regions 

 of the earth. In Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Balkan 

 States, and in Northern China, as well as in North and South America, 

 it is an important agricultural crop. However, nearly 75 per cent 

 of the world's production is supplied by the United States, where corn 

 has for a long period stood first among field products. In 191 5, some- 

 thing over 3,000,000,000 bushels of corn were produced in the United 

 States. Most of the varieties known up to the middle of the last 

 century were flint and dent corns, both of which were cultivated by 

 Indians before the coming of white men. The first certain record of 

 the cultivation of sweet com is in 1779, when it was obtained from the 

 Indians of the Susquehanna Valley and introduced into the region 

 about Plymouth, Mass. As late as 1854, only two varieties of sweet 

 corn seem to have been known, so that its cultivation on a large scale 

 is a very modern development. 



191. Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. — These are the 

 two great groups into which angiosperms are divided. The 

 monocotyledons are so named because their embryos have 

 but one seed leaf (cotyledon) ; among them are the Indian 

 com and other grasses, the lilies and their relatives, the 

 palms, and the orchids. The dicotyledons, whose embryos 

 have two seed leaves, are much the larger group ; they in- 

 clude most of our garden plants and common weeds and 

 nearly all the common trees and shrubs excepting evergreens. 

 The squash, pumpkin, and cucumber belong to one family 

 of dicotyledons ; the beans and their relatives belong to 

 another family. Following are some of the differences be- 

 tween the two groups : 



a. The vascular bundles in the stem of a dicotyledon are 

 arranged in a cylinder ; in this respect dicotyledons 

 resemble the pine. The bast and wood of each bundle 



