the Fourth Week of Advent
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Bible Encyclopedias
Maize
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or or Indian Corn, Zea Mays (from ea or "eca, which appears to have been " spelt," Triticum spelta, according to the description of Theophrastus), a plant of the tribe Maydeae of the order Gramineae or grasses (see fig. I). It is unknown in the native state, but is most probably indigenous to tropical America. Small grains of an unknown variety have been found in the ancient tombs of Peru, and Darwin found heads of maize embedded on the shore in Peru at 85 ft. above the present sea-level. Bonafous, 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-chi-tchin, 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. Humboldt, Alphonse de Candolle and others, however, do not hesitate to say that it originated solely in America, where it had been long and extensively cultivated at the period of the discovery of the New World; and that is the generally accepted modern view. Some hold the view that maize originated from a common Mexican fodder grass, Euchlaena mexicana, known as Teosinte, a closely allied plant which when crossed with maize yields a maize-like hybrid.
The plant is monoecious, producing the staminate (male) flowers in a large feathery panicle at the summit, and the (female) dense spikes of flowers, or " cobs," 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 south Europe, and the more delicate ones for cigarettes in South America. Fig. 2 shows a branch of the terminal male inflorescence. Fig. 3 is a single spikelet of the same, containing two florets, with the three stamens of one only protruded. Fig. 4 is a 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. 5 is a spikelet of the female inflorescence, consisting of two outer glumes, the lower one ciliated, which enclose two florets - one (a) barren (sometimes fertile), consisting of a flowering glume and pale only, and the other (b) fertile, containing the pistil with elongated style. The mass of styles from the whole spike is pendulous from the summit of the sheaths, as in fig. 4. Fig. 6 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. Dr E. Lewis Sturtevant, who has made an extended study of the forms and varieties, classes into seven groups those grown primarily for the grain, 2. - Spike of Male Flowers. FIG. 3. - Male Spikelet.
the distinguishing characters of which are based on the grains or kernels; there are, in addition, forms of horticultural interest grown for ornament. Pod corn (var. tunicata) is characterized by having each kernel enclosed in a husk. Pop corn (var. everta) has a very large proportion of the " endosperm " - the nutritious matter which with the small embryo makes up the grain - of a horny consistency, which causes the grain to pop when heated, that is to say, the kernel becomes turned inside out by the explosion of the contained moisture. It is also characterized by the small size of the grain and ear. Flint FIG. Female Spike.
corn (var. indurata) has a starchy endosperm enclosed in a horny layer of varying thickness in the different varieties. The colour of the grain is white, yellow, red, blue or variegated. It is commonly cultivated in Canada and northern United States, where the seasons are too short for Dent corn, and has been grown as far north as N. lat. Dent or field corn (var. indentata) has the starchy endosperm extending to the summit of the grain, with horny endosperm at the sides. The top of the grain becomes indented, owing to the drying and shrinkage of the starchy matter; the character of the indented surface varies with the height and thickness of the horny endosperm. This is the form commonly grown in the United States; the varieties differ widely in the size of the p lants and the appearance of the ear.
