48 



MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



open line of communication, where agriculture and the 

 higher arts have never been practised. 



Now the invention of agriculture is an antecedent 

 necessity for all the high cultures of the New World. It 

 is equally clear that this invention must have taken 

 place in a locality where 

 some important food plant 

 grew in a wild state. By far 

 the most important food 

 plant of the New World is 

 maize. While this plant has 

 changed greatly under do- 

 mestication, botanists are 

 inclined to find its nearest 

 relative and possible pro- 

 genitor in a wild grass 

 growing on the highlands 

 of Mexico and known by 

 the Aztecan name teocentli, 

 which means sacred maize. 

 It is known that maize is 

 at its best in a semi-arid 

 tropical environment. It 



cannot be brought to withstand frost although the 

 growing season can be cut down to meet the require- 

 ments of a short summer. Geographically its use 

 extended from the St. Lawrence to the Rio de la Plata 

 and from sea level to an elevation of fifteen thousand 

 feet in tropical regions. The Mexican highlands occupy 

 the central position in the area of its distribution and 

 archaeological evidence strongly points to this region 

 as being the cradle of agriculture and the attendant arts. 

 Besides maize, the most widely distributed food plants 

 of the New World are beans and squashes. Certain 

 other plants were cultivated in more restricted areas 



Fig. 12. Teocentli or Mexican 

 Fodder Grass. 



