THE 7 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. x1x.— MARCH, 1885.—No. 3. 
INDIAN: CORN AND THE INDIAN. 
_ BY E, LEWIS STURTEVANT, M.D. 
i oe is the product of an ancient American civilization, 
which if small as compared with that of to-day, yet was 
capable of achieving results which we of the présent gladly 
appropriate. It constituted the daily food of tribes which have 
now disappeared from existence, and at the time of the discovery 
was a cherished plant throughout the temperate and the tropical 
regions of America, and finds mention in nearly every account of 
the voyager, or hardy explorer who penetrated beyond the con- 
fines of the coast. The plant has never been recorded as being 
found in a wild state, but has existed in numerous varieties from 
time immemorial, and the leading races grown to-day can find 
more or less certain identification in the imperfect descriptions of 
_ the species grown by the Indians. 
It is a general observation that varieties are produced through 
the influence of the wants and the choice expressed by civiliza- 
tion, and hence we may conclude that the vast number of varie- 
ties of maize that formerly, as now, existed, have been derived 
through the appreciation of a culture that was under the influence 
of varied and critical consumers. In Central America the condi- 
tions existed for producing varieties, and hence wheresoever the 
home of the native plant is to be located, from this central region 
must we preferably look for the origin of the domesticated maize- 
plant, as we now know it, or at least of some of its races. We 
have evidence in the tropical nature of the plant that it was orig- 
inally derived from a country where winters were unknown, or 
were mild. The few traditions that we have found recorded by 
the Indians all point towards Central America, as where it is 
VOL. XIX.—No. 111, 15 
bad 
