394 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



above the level of the sea.^ This maize was perhaps not 

 cultivated, but in this case it would be yet more 

 interesting, as an indication of the origin of the species. 



Although America has been explored by a great 

 number of botanists, none have found maize in the 

 conditions of a wild plant. 



Auguste de Saint-Hilaire ^ thought he recognized the 

 wild type in a singular variety, of which each grain is 

 enclosed within its sheath or bract. It is known at 

 Buenos-Ayres under the name pinsigallo. It is Zea Mays 

 tunicata of Saint-Hilaire, of which Bonafous gives an 

 illustration, pi. 5, bis, un^er the name Zea O'yptosperma. 

 Lindley^ also gives a description and a drawing from 

 seeds brought, it is said, from the Rocky Mountains, but 

 this is not confirmed by recent Califomian floras. A 

 young Guarany, born in Paraguay oii its frontiers, had 

 recognized this maize, and told Saint-HUaire that it grew 

 in the damp forests of his country. This is very in- 

 sufficient proof that it is indigenous. No traveller to my 

 knowledge has seen this plant wild in Paraguay or 

 Brazil. But it is an interesting fact that it has been 

 cultivated in Europe, and that it often passes into the 

 ordinary state of maize. Lindley observed it when it 

 had been only two or three years in cultivation, and 

 Professor Radio obtained from one sowing 225 ears of the 

 form tunicata, and 105 of the common form with naked 

 grains.* Evidently this form, which might be believed a 

 true species, but whose country is, however, doubtful, is 

 hardly even a race. It is one of the innumerable varieties, 

 more or less hereditary, of which botanists who are con- 

 sidered authorities make only a single species, because of 

 their want of stability and the transitions which they 

 frequently present. 



On the condition of Zea Mays, and its habitation in 

 America before it was cultivated, we have nothing but con- 



' Darwin, Var. of Plants and Anim. under Domest., i. p. 320. 

 ' A. de Saint-Hilaire, Ann. Sc. Nat., xvi. p. 143. 

 ' Lindley, Journ. of the Sortie. Sac., i. p. 114. 



* I quote tliese facts from Wittmaok, Ueber Antiken Mais aus Nord 

 und Sud Amerika, p. 87, in Berlin Anthropol. Ges., Nov. 10, 1879. 



