1885.] {Indian Corn and the Indian. 233 
maize. At the time of the discovery of the various regions of 
our country in detail, the Indians had already accomplished in 
the matter of improvement of varieties of maize what we are at 
present using, and we have no evidence, I speak after careful 
research, that any new forms of maize have appeared from our 
two centuries or more of civilized cultivation. The various agri- 
cultural species of maize, the flints, dents, softs, sweets and pops 
appear to be original forms; the subdivisions of these into local 
forms appear to have been about as well accomplished by the In- 
dians as by ourselves. The leading forms of maize, in all the 
cases where sufficient material has been collected for examina- 
tion, can be referred to an Indian original, and a more cursory 
examination into all the forms, seems to indicate that this Indian 
origin is common with all. 
If we ask the maize plants themselves to tell their own story, 
we have for reply : 
We are originally of a warm region, for our seeds require 
about 80° F. for their best germination, and our roots occupy 
only the hotter regions of the soil. We are of very ancient ori- 
gin, and many ages ago separated into several groups, for we now 
represent five different families, which do not easily fraternize 
and which resist attempts at mingling, to a more or less extent, 
but not reciprocally. We have been long domesticated, for we 
have lost the power of becoming feral, in our civilization we 
do not recognize our barbarian ancestry even by sight, we- 
have long ago separated into agricultural species for the conve- 
nience of man, we have withia each of our species given to man’s 
continuous asking varieties suited for his necessities to accom- 
pany him to regions of short seasons, and to regions unknown to 
our ancestry. We have varied for man as he has required new 
wants of us, yet we have maintained the traditions of our origin, 
when man has not compelled us to discard. We yet ask the 
temperature for our growth that our ancestors enjoyed; we yet 
ask that we shall not be subjected to shade. Upon unessentials 
we have yielded, perhaps after long repeated persuasion, to mold 
our product to man’s desire for quantity, to change our habit of 
bearing, to get along with a greater or less continuance of heat, 
to grow larger or smaller plants, to protect ourselves from the 
thieving of birds or insects, to abandon those agencies for our 
- own survival, from which care man has relieved us. We now 
