COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF THE ORIENTAL 
MAYDEAE 
By Paul Weatherwax 
Associate Professor of Botany, Indiana University 
The widespread interest that has been shown for many 
years in the origin and botanical nature of maize attaches an 
unusual interest to all grasses thought to be at all closely 
related to this unique plant. Its close relationship to Tripsa- 
cum and Euchlaena, of the American tropics, is generally con- 
ceded; but four other genera, of the Eastern Hemisphere, 
which systematists have usually placed in the same tribe with 
Zea, have never been studied in sufficient detail to afford any 
substantial foundation for their taxonomic position. 
Bentham and Hooker (2) include Zea, Euchlaena, Tripsa- 
cum, Coix, Polytoca, Sclerachne, Chionachne, and Pariana 
under the tribe Maydeae. Hackel (3) adopts the same classifi- 
cation except for Pariana, which is placed with the Hordeae. 
Baillon (1) treats Pariana as a monoecious form of the Hor- 
deae, and the other seven genera as a hardly separable subdi- 
vision (Maydeae) of the Andropogoneae. More recent writers 
have generally omitted Pariana from the Maydeae; and 
some have substituted the tribal name Tripsaceae for Maydeae. 
Representative species of the genera not native of America 
have been under observation by the writer for several years ; 
and, altho the data collected thus far are far from com- 
plete, they are given here for the use of other investigators — 
especially those interested in maize — who may not have been 
able to examine the plants, or to secure detailed, significant 
descriptions. Seeds and herbarium specimens of Polytoca, 
Sclerachne, and many varieties of Coix have been secured 
from their native habitats, and several generations of these 
plants have been grown in the greenhouse. Only herbarium 
specimens of Chionachne have been available. It is intended 
here to describe only the general anatomy of the plants, in 
comparison with what is known about maize, and to discuss 
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(3) 
