completely routed, and had to thank the apathy of the Afghans for escaping total annihilation. Of the 2476 British troops engaged, 934 were killed and 175 wounded or missing. This defeat necessitated Sir Frederick Roberts’ famous march from Kabul to Kandahar.
See Lord Roberts, Forty-one Years in India (1896).
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. |
