12 



THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



caryopsis, like that of other grasses, in which the fruit 

 coats are united with the seed coat — nevertheless the 

 whole ear is ordinarily considered as a single compound 

 fruit. 



It is almost entirely on the basis of the grains that 

 the modern horticultural classification is built, though 

 types are recognized on the basis of other characters. 

 The characteristics of the various types are so easily 

 subject to separations and recombinations by the plant 

 breeder that the attempt to classify corn varieties into 

 definite botanical subspecies is thought by most recent 

 students to be futile. Some of the older botanists, 

 unaware of the havoc that geneticists of the near future 

 would wreak upon their pet schemes of classification, 

 did, however, describe various so-called species and 

 varieties until the number of names became very 

 unwieldy and many of them quite meaningless. 



M. Bonafous, in 1836, in his Histoire naturelle, 

 agricole, et economique du Mais, seems to have 

 been the first to attempt a classification of maize varieties, 

 though there had been many treatments of various 

 forms before that. However, his monograph remains a 

 notable landmark in the literature of maize. 



In 1866, Frederich Alefeld, in his Landwirtschaft- 

 liche Flora, attempted a more ambitious classification 

 in which he described 50 varieties under six variety- 

 groups. These are rather artificial as the first contained 

 extraordinary types; the second, dwarf types; the third, 

 branched types; the fourth, those with conical ears; 

 the fifth, ordinary European field types; and the sixth. 

 North American varieties of numerous kinds. 



In 1873, Friedrich Kornicke, in his Systematische 

 Ubersicht der Cerealen, etc., classified 64 varieties 

 under 5 variety-groups. These were somewhat more 

 natural than those of Alefeld. The first included extra- 

 ordinary types; the second, concerning which mention 

 has been made in the preceding chapter, included the 

 sweet corn varieties; the third included dent corn types; 

 the fourth, pop corns and other small-kerneled types; 

 and the fifth all other types. Kornicke revised this 

 system slightly in 1885 in the Handbuch des 

 Getreidebaues. 



From 1881 to 1899, E. L. Sturtevant, who was 

 director of this Station during part of that time, published 

 a number of articles dealing with the classification of 

 maize and named, as " agricultural species," the pod 

 corns, pop corns, sweet corns, flint corns, dent corns, 

 starchy-sweet corns, and soft corns. 



These names have some use as designating groups 

 of horticultural varieties adapted for various purposes, 

 as some of the other names that have been proposed 

 have a certain degree of utility in designating types of 

 value to the floriculturist or the geneticist. However, 



these names do not signify subspecies or botanical 

 varieties, though some of them might be designated 

 properly as " formae." 



The reason for not admitting as botanical entities 

 such varieties as those proposed by Alefeld, Kornicke, 

 and Sturtevant is that usually the varieties classified 

 in one group can, with equal justice, be disposed in one 

 or more of the other groups. This is illustrated 

 admirably by Weatherwax 1 who, in discussing endosperm 

 varieties, says, " Sweet corn is apparently the same as 

 other varieties except that it has lost its ability to pro- 

 duce fully developed starch grains. Hybridization of 

 sweet varieties with soft starchy varieties produces 

 grains indicating that sweet corn may be differentiated 

 into soft, flinty, and dent varieties that cannot synthe- 

 size starch efficiently." Pop corns are likewise generally 

 small kerneled flint types; and pod corns, dwarf corns, 

 and variegated leaf types, as well as ramose types and 

 so on, may occur in any of the other forms. 



However, since many of these terms have found 

 their way into common usage and into the general 

 literature of maize, an attempt is here made to list, 

 as far as possible, the Latin names that have been 

 applied to the various groups. Those names, the 

 applications of which are very doubtful, are grouped at 

 the end. 



The synonymy- of maize follows: 



ZEA MAYS L. SP. PL. 971. 1753.— MAIZE. 



1. Synonyms of general application to the species as a whole: 



Zea americana Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8. No. 1. 1768; Zea 

 alba Mill. /. c. No. 2: Zea vulgaris Mill. /. c. No. 3; Mays Zea 

 Gaertn. Fruct. et Sem. 1:6. 1788; Zea Maiz Veil. Fl. Flum. 

 10:t.3. 1790; Zea segetalis Salisb. Prod. 28. 1796: Mays vulgaris 

 Ser. Mel. Bot. 2:182. 1819; Zea altissima Gmel. ex Steud. 

 Nom. Bot. ed. 1. 898. 1821; Mayzea cerealis Raf. Med. Fl. 

 2:241. 1830; Mays americana Baumg. Enum. Stirp. Transs. 

 3:281. 1840; Zea mats Alef. Landw. Fl. 303. 1866; Thalysia 

 Mays Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 2:794. 1891. 



2. Endosperm forms: 



(,ai Dent com. — Zea Mays quasquinensis Bonaf. Hist. 

 Nat. Mais. 37. 1836; Zea Mays quillotensis Bonaf. /. c. 38; 

 Zea Mays leucodon Alef. Landw. Fl. 311. 1866; Zea Mays 

 xanthodon Alef. 1. c: Zea Mays pyrodon Alef. /. c: Zea Mays 

 dentiformis Korn. Syst. Uebers. 23. 1873; Zea Mays alborubra 

 Korn. /. c; Zea Mays flavorubra Korn. /. c; Zea Mays crocodon 

 Korn. /. c. 24; Zea Mays crococeras Korn. /. c; Zea Mays stria- 

 tidens Korn. /. c; Zea Mays rubrostriata Korn. /. c; Zea Mays 

 poikilodon Korn. /. c; Zea indentata Sturt. Gard. Chron. II. 

 20:443. 1883; Maize, 8. 1884. Zea Mays cyanodon Korn. in 

 Korn. &Wem. Handb. Getreid. 1:362. 1885; Zea Mays rubro- 

 vestita Korn. 1. c; Zea Mays rubrovelata Korn. /. c: Zea 

 Mays chilena Korn. /. c. 375; Zea Mays indentata Bailey, Cycl. 

 Am. Hort. 2006. 1902; Zea Mays dentiformis leucoceras Ray- 

 baud, Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. 81:196. 1921. 



ib) Flint corn. — Zea Mays vulgaris Bonaf. Hist. Nat. 

 Mais. 31. 1836; Zea Mays vulgaris aestiva Bonaf. /. c: Zea Mays 

 vulgaris autumna Bonaf. /. c. 32; Zea Mays pensylvanica 



1 Weatherwax, Paul. hoc. cit. 159. 1923. 



■ Each synonym is given but once in the following list, even though in some cases it is evident that tile form designated might equally 

 well be placed in another class, as is the case with some of the dwarf forms which are pod corns, or flint corns, or other types as well. Many 

 of the original descriptions are very inadequate, and the names may be placed in groups to which others might have been preferred if a full 

 description were available. It cannot be hoped that all varietal names are here noted, although a strenuous effort has been made to list 

 all that have been published. The literature is voluminous and there is no index to varietal names comparable to the Kew Index of specific 

 names. 



