4 83 
composed of 8 to 10 spherical heads ; involucre prickly all over with 
spreading, downwardly-barbed, short spines, inclosing 2 or 3 spikelets. 
Annual; flowers in August. Culms 9 to 18 inches high. Wisconsin, 
Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota. A pestilent weed. 
TRIBE XI. SACCHAREML 
Fertile paleae membranaceous or scabrous, always of thinner and more 
delicate texture than the often (indurated) glumes, frequently awned from 
the tip; spikelets usually in pairs or threes, panicled or spiked, some of 
them entirely sterile. 
GENUS 53. ZEA. Linnaeus. 
(From zao to live—the grain being used to sustain life. 
Flowers monoecious, the staminate in terminal, paniculate racemes ; 
spikelets two-flowered; glumes two, herbaceous, obtuse subequal; paleae 
membranaceous, awnless, obtuse; the pistilate spikelets two-flowered, the 
lower one abortive; glumes two, very obtuse; paleae awnless; style one, 
filiform, very long, pendulous ; caryopsis compressed. 
142. Zea Mays.* Linnaeus. 
Corn—Indian corn. Maize. 
Leaves flat, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, entire with a broad, thickish 
midrib channelled above. Annual ; flowers in July; ripens in September 
and October. Culms 5 to 10 feet high. 
All the different kinds of maize cultivated in this country are but va¬ 
rieties of this species, agreeing with the essential specific character. 
Those who wish more detailed information in regard to this important 
item of our agricultural products, than it is my purpose to give, will do 
well to consult the essays of P. A. Brown, in the Farmer’s Cabinet, vol. 
ii, 1837 ; of D. J. Brown in the Transactions of the American Institute, 
for 1846, and especially of J, TI. Salisbury in the Transactions of the 
New York State Agricultural Society for 1848, page 678. These essays 
are very full and complete, forming models after which similar papers 
should be prepared and published in regard to all the more important 
products of the farm. 
* The ancient Athenians had a sort of cako prepared at public expense, for common 
/are called Alaza; hence probably our word Make, the specific name of Indian com. 
