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SECTION III. 



THE TROPICAL CEREALS AND STARCH- 

 PRODUCING PLANTS. 



INDIAN CORN. 



The importance and value of Indian Corn (Zea Mays) in tropical 

 and semitropical countries, are too well known to need illustration. 

 On every part of the globe where the hand of civilization has broken 

 the turf, this beautiful grain receives a large share of attention. In 

 the western continent it is raised from Canada to Patagonia and the 

 islands of the South Seas, through almost every variety of climate 

 and people, and over an extent, from north to south, of more than 

 7000 miles. It was introduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 

 sixteenth century, and is cultivated more or less from the Mediterra- 

 nean Sea and the Libyan Desert to the Cape of Good Hope. In Java 

 and the Asiatic isles it forms an important product. In Central 

 Asia it is known and valued, as well as in Australia and the islands of 

 the Indian Ocean. In Europe it is extensively produced in Hungary, 

 Lombardy, France, and Spain, and we might almost say from the 

 Ural chain to the Atlantic. No grain could secure such favours from 

 all parts of the world except from its intrinsic value. No other 

 cereal, in fact, except rice, is so extensively cultivated. 



Its flexibility of organization makes it very easy of adaptation to 

 climate and soil. Though it prefers moist and rich soils, with strong 

 heats, there are varieties of it which can be raised in tropical climates, 

 at a height of more than 9000 feet above the level of the sea. The 

 warmest regions of the torrid zone produce maize in abundance, 

 where three crops can be taken in a season, while the short summers 

 of Canada have a variety adapted to them. This cannot be said of 

 rice, which requires great heat, and cannot endure a climate of high 

 latitude. 



Indian corn ripens at a time when most other grains have been 

 harvested; it therefore furnishes employment, when there would 

 naturally be but little else to do. But what gives to Indian corn its 

 great importance is the actual amount of nutritive matter which it 

 contains. It is said to be third in this respect, wheat and rice con- 

 taining a somewhat greater amount, though many place maize second 

 only to wheat. 



No plant is more beautiful, and none so well suited to the varieties 



