NEW YORK 

 BOTANIC >■ 



GA' 



CHAPTER I 

 HISTORY OF CORN 



In the early days of the earth, when the Spirit of 

 Good brought the birds and animals from the sun land, 

 one of the birds, the crow, carried in his ear a grain of 

 maize. The Spirit of Good planted this on his Mother's 

 (the earth's) breast, and it became the first grain, the 

 " life " of the red man. So runs the Iroquois legend 

 of the origin of corn. 1 



There are many other legends among the various 

 tribes of American Indians, and it is significant of the 

 great age of maize culture that all tribes so far as known, 

 in both North and South America, have no theories or 

 historical explanations of their use of corn — only these 

 myths and legends. Moreover, it is claimed by one 

 investigator that " from purely botanical reasoning, 

 based on a detailed comparison of maize with its wild 

 relatives, Indian corn may confidently be proclaimed 

 the most ancient of the cultivated cereals, if not of all 

 cultivated plants." 2 



The beginnings of the story of corn are lost in per- 

 haps the densest of the fogs of uncertainty and of time 

 surrounding the origin of any of our cultivated plants. 

 A number of hypotheses 1 have been suggested as to the 

 origin of corn as a domesticated plant, but each meets 

 objections of fact that prevent unqualified acceptance 

 by close students of the question. 



One theory is that corn at one time existed as a 

 wild form in practically its present state. But no form 

 that we know at present seems able to exist in compe- 

 tition with wild vegetation. All forms known are 

 dependent on man for continued existence. 



Another theory is that corn may have arisen as a 

 sport or mutation of some wild species, but geneticists 

 find unanswerable objections in the characters of hybrids 

 with the nearest forms. 



A third theory is that it may have arisen from teo- 

 sinte, its closest botanical ally, or from crossing a closely 

 allied plant with teosinte; but the character of the fruit 

 of teosinte offers objections to this hypothesis, as do 

 the characters of all known mutations of corn. 



A fourth theory is that corn is the culmination of 

 a line of plants that originated at or before the time 

 that teosinte became differentiated. One objection here 

 seems to be the time element involved in consideration 

 of the dependability of the plant upon man, and another 

 is the close affinity to teosinte as shown by its inter- 

 fertility with that species. 



It should be noted here that apparently every acre 



of land throughout Mexico, Central America, and 

 Northern South America that furnishes the proper 

 habitat for a wild maize, or a wild species allied to maize, 

 has been or now is cultivated land. In fact, practically 

 all teosinte is found either at the edge of corn fields or 

 in deserted cornfields. It is possible that the wild 

 ancestor of maize, if such a plant existed, has been 

 exterminated by Indian civilization as thoroughly as 

 the passenger pigeon and the great auk have been 

 eradicated by white civilization in the comparatively 

 recent past. The opinion of De Candolle that the 

 natural area of corn was very small should be con- 

 sidered in this connection. 



" If ever a plant could be said to be designed for 

 the use of man, that plant is Indian corn. And in 

 accordance with this seemingly providential plan, maize 

 and man are inseparably associated in America as far 

 back as human remains are found. Nowhere does 

 maize grow without man's aid nor can it. . That 



the artificial development of maize had attained a high 

 level in very early times is attested not only by the size 

 of the prehistoric ears but also by their coloration. It 

 is surely no accident that maize is the most decorative 

 of crop plants, and clearly the element of art had entered 

 into its breeding more than 2,000 years ago." 4 



The first tangible point in the history of corn is a 

 fossil ear which was purchased from a collector of 

 curios in Peru in 1914. This ear is said by the describer 5 

 to be at least several thousand years old and is similar 

 in individual characters to various Peruvian and Bolivian 

 varieties. 



The second earliest record seems to be the ears 

 found on the island of San Lorenzo, near Pallao, Peru, 

 by Darwin, 6 who says, " I was much interested by 

 finding on the terrace at the height of eighty-five feet, 

 embedded amidst the shells and much sea-drifted 

 rubbish, some bits of cotton thread, plaited rush, and 

 the head of a stalk of Indian corn; I compared these 

 relics with similar ones taken out of Huacas, or old 

 Peruvian tombs and found them identical in appear- 

 ance." In another place 7 he states that various facts 

 " render it almost certain that they were accumulated 

 on a true beach, since upraised eighty-five feet, and 

 upraised this much since Indian man inhabited 

 Peru." This would seem to indicate that both corn 

 and man had occupied this region for a number of 

 centuries. 



1 Iroquois myths and legends. N. Y. State Museum Bui. 437; 63. 1908. 

 - Kempton. J. H. Maize, the plant-breeding Achievement of the American Indian 

 ■ The reader interested in a thorough discussion of these theories is referred to Collins, G. N 

 Bot. Club, 57 -.199-210. 1930. 



4 Kempton, J. H. Loc. cit.. 326-327. 



'- Knowlton, F. H. Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci.. 9:134. 1919. 



8 Darwin, C. R. Journal Researches, 370. Appleton. 1896. 



7 Darwin, C. R. Geological Observations, 269. Appleton. 1897. 



3 



Smithsonian Sci. Ser., 11: 324. 1931. 



The phylogeny of maize. Bui. Torrey 



