MAIZE, or Indian Corn, Zea Mays (from ζεά; or ζειά,
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. 1). It is
unknown in the native state,
but is most probably indigenous
Fig. 1.
Maize—Zea Mays—unripe cob. The membranous spathes have been cut and drawn aside, revealing the spike of fruit which bears the long silky styles. One-third nat. size.
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 maïs), 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, 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 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 50° 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 plants and the appearance of the ear.
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| Fig. 2.—Spike of Male Flowers. | Fig. 3.—Male Spikelet. |
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| Fig. 4.—Female Spike. |
The colour of the grain varies greatly, being generally white,
yellow, mottled red, or less commonly red. Soft corn (var.
amylacea) has no horny endosperm, and hence the grains shrink
uniformly. It is cultivated only to a limited extent in the
United States, but seems to have been commonly grown by
Fig. 5.—Female Spikelet.
the Indians in many localities in North and South America.
Sweet corn (var. saccharata) is characterized by the translucent
horny appearance of the grains and
their more or less wrinkled condition.
It is pre-eminently a garden vegetable,
the ear being used before the
grain hardens, when it is well filled
but soft and milky. It is often cooked
and served in the cob; when canned
it is cut from the cob. Canned sweet
corn is an important article of domestic
commerce in Canada and the
United States. In starchy sweet corn
(var. amylea-saccharata) the grain has the external appearance of
sweet corn, but examination shows the lower half to be starchy,
the upper horny and translucent. A form of flint corn, with
variegated leaves, is grown for ornament under the name Zea
japonica or Japanese striped corn.
Chemical analysis, like common experience, shows that
Indian corn is a very nutritious article of food, being richer
in albuminoids than any other cereals when ripe (calculated
in the dry weight). It can be grown in the tropics from the
level of the sea to a height equal to that of the Pyrenees and
in the south and middle of Europe, but it cannot be grown
in England with any chance of profit, except perhaps as fodder.
Frost kills the plant in all its stages and all its varieties; and
the crop does not flourish well if the nights are cool, no matter
how favourable the other conditions.
Consequently it is the first crop to
disappear as one ascends into the mountain
regions, and comparatively little
is grown west of the great plains of
North America. In Brittany, where it
Fig. 6.—Grain.
scarcely ripens the grain, it furnishes a strong crop in the autumn
upon sandy soil where clover and lucerne will yield but a poor
produce. It prefers a deep, rich, warm, dry and mellow soil,
and hence the rich bottoms and fertile prairies of the Mississippi
basin constitute the region of its greatest production. It is
extensively grown throughout India, both for the ripe grain
and for use of the unripe cob as a green vegetable. It is the
most common crop throughout South Africa, where it is known
as mealies, being the staple food of the natives. It is also
largely used for fodder and is an important article of export.
As an article of food maize is one of the most extensively used grains in the world. Although rich in nitrogenous matter and fat, it does not make good bread. A mixture of rye and corn meal, however, makes an excellent coarse bread, formerly much used in the Atlantic states, and a similar bread is now the chief coarse bread of Portugal and some parts of Spain. It is either baked into cakes, called tortilla by the Indians of Yucatan, or made into a kind of porridge, as in Ireland. When deprived of the gluten it constitutes oswego, maizena or corn flour. Maize contains more oil than any other cereal, ranging from 3.5 to 9.5% in the commercial grain. This is one of the factors in its value for fattening purposes. In distilling and some other processes this oil is separated and forms an article of commerce. When maize is sown, broadcast or closely planted in drills the ears may not develop at all, but the stalk is richer in sugar and sweeter; and this is the basis of growing “corn-fodder.” The amount of forage that may be produced in this way is enormous; 50,000 to 80,000 ℔ of green fodder are grown per acre, which makes 8000 to 12,000 ℔ as field-cured. Sugar and molasses have from time to time been manufactured from the corn stalks.
See articles on corn and Zea Mays in L. H. Bailey’s Cyclopaedia of American Horticulture (1900–1902); and for cultivation in India, Watt’s Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, vi. (1893).