Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/329

Rh M A I M A I 309 aliquot Parisiensium, vitas ct Ubros complectcns, 1717 ; Annales Typographic^, 9 vols. 4to, The Hague, Amsterdam, and London, 1719-41 ; Marmora Oxonicnsia, 1732 ; editions of a large number of Latin authors (Lucretius, Phsedrus, Sallust, Terence, &c.), as well as an edition of Anacreon (1725), and Miscellanea Grxcorum aliquot scriptorum Carmina, 1722. MAIZE, or INDIAN CORN, Zea Mays, L., from ea or eiu, which appears to have been &quot;spelt&quot; (Triticum spelta, L.), according to the description of Theophrastus, is of the tribe Phalaridese, .of the order Graminex or grasses. It is unknown in the native state, but is most probably indi genous to tropical America (Endlicher, Gen. PL, No. 742). Small grains of an unknown variety have been found in the ancient tombs of Peru. Eonafous, however (Histoire naturelle du Mais), quotes authorities (Bock, 1532, Ruel and Fuchs) as believing that it came from Asia, and maize was said by Santa Rosa de Viterbo to have been brought by the Arabs into Spain in the 13th century. A drawing of maize is also given by Bonafous from a Chinese work on natural history, Li-cJd-tckin, dated 1562, a little over sixty years after the discovery of the New World. It is not figured on Egyptian monuments, nor was any mention made of it by Eastern travellers in Africa or Asia prior to the 16th century. On the authority, however, of Mr J. Crawford, who resided for nine years in Java, Bonafous says it had been cultivated from a very ancient period in the Asiatic islands under the equator, and that it was received thence into China, and so passed westwards into India and Turkey, Ii3nce its name of &quot; Turkey corn,&quot; under which title Gerard in 1597 figured and described seven kinds, as well as one called &quot; Corne of Asia.&quot; Both Gerard and Bonafons think that it first came from the East, but that on the dis covery of America it was reintroduced into Europe from that country. The formar observes : &quot; These kinds of graine were first brought into Spaine, and then into other provinces of Europe out of Asia, which is in the Turkes Dominions ; as also out of America and the Hands adioyn- ing from the East and West Indies and Virginia, etc.&quot; Humbolclt and others, however, do not hesitate to say that it originated solely in America. It had been long and extensively cultivated there at the period of the discovery of the New World. The plant is monoecious, producing the staminate (male) flowers in a large feathery panicle at FIG. L Male. FIG. 2. Male. the summit, and the (female) dense spikes of flowers, or &quot;cobs,&quot; in the axils of the leaves below, the long pink styles hanging out like a silken tassel. They are invested by the sheaths of leaves, much used in packing oranges in tSouth Europe, and the more delicate ones for cigarettes in South America. The accompanying figures are after Nees von Esenbeck, Gen. PL Fl. Germ. Fig. 1 shows a branch of the terminal male inflorescence. Fig. 2 is a single spikelet of the same, containing two florets, with the three stamens of one only protruded. Fig. 3 is a .FIG. 3. Female. spike of the female inflorescence, protected by the sheaths of leaves, the blades being also present. Usually the sheaths terminate in a point, the blades being arrested. Fig. 4 is a spikelet of the female inflorescence, consisting of two outer glumes, the lower one ciliated, which enclose two florets, one barren (sometimes fertile), consisting of a flowering glume and pale only, and the other fertile, containing the pistil with elongated style. The ma-_s of styles from the whole spike is pendulous from the summit of the sheaths, as in fig. 3. Fig. 5 shows the fruit or grain. More than three hundred varieties are known, which differ more among themselves than those of any other cereal. Some come to maturity in two months, others require seven months ; some are as many feet high as others are inches ; some have kernels eleven times larger than others. They vary similarly in shape and size of ears, colour of the grain, which may be white, yellow, purple, striped, &c., and also in physical characters and chemical composition, in short, in all those char acters in which the different species of a genus differ among themselves. The varieties grown most abund antly in the United States may be roughly grouped into four great classes. The &quot;Flint&quot; varieties are most common east of Lake Erie and north of Maryland, and the &quot;Dent&quot; varieties are the common ones west and south of these points. The &quot;Horsetooth&quot; varieties are grown extensively only in the south, and there they are grown along with the dent. These three classes pass into each other by every gradation, and the grain from all is similar in chemical composition. The &quot;Sweet&quot; varieties are not grown for the ripe grain, but for boiling corn, and that the stalks may serve as &quot; corn fodder.&quot; &quot; Green corn &quot; was an im portant food with the native Indians. Many of the tribes celebrated its season with religious ceremonies and festivals. In the large cities of America &quot;green corn&quot; is a table luxury, but in the smaller towns and country districts it is an important article of food. Chemical analysis, as well as common experience, shows that this is a very nutritious article of food, being richer in albuminoids FIG. 5. Grain.