By J. C. Vaughan, Chicago.

The tables of the Gardeners' Monthly fairly groan with trade catalogues which we are repeatedly asked to notice. There is rarely one that has not some commendable feature, and we cannot notice one without taking in nearly all. A magazine like ours has no room for this, and hence catalogues cannot be noticed in our reading pages. But it is often very difficult to decide as to what is a mere catalogue, for some of them give information equal to that which the most valuable library book could give; and just such a case is this before us, though it is essentially a catalogue intended to help the trade of the author. It is brim full of information which in its treatment at least, has a fair claim to be repeated as original. We give the following specimen from the chapter on Indian corn :

"It is not the age, but the birth-place of Indian corn that is in dispute. All authorities agree as to its antiquity. Those who claim America for its origin tell of its being found in tombs and ruins of South America, in caves of Arizona, and mounds of Utah. Darwin, in his 'Voyage of a Naturalist,' mentions a head of a stalk found imbedded in a shell and sea-drift eighty-five feet above the surface of the sea. The III. Hort. Soc. Trans., 1876, contain the statement of a Mr. Spitz, that he came upon petrified stalks and ears of corn, perfect in appearance, while working a stone quarry, near La Prairie, Adams Co., III. The Smithsonian Institute has an irregular, 13-rowed ear of corn found in an earthen vessel eleven feet under ground, in the tomb of a mummy, near Ariquipi, Peru.

"Those who claim Asia for its origin point to the representation of the plant found in an ancient Chinese book in the Royal Library in Paris, and tell of the grain being found in cellars of ancient houses in Athens. Rifaud speaks of finding the grain and ear of maize within the tomb of a mummy at Thebes, in 1819. A few like Corbett claim it to be the corn of Scripture. It is interesting to note the apt quotations he makes to prove his theory. Here are a few of them : Mark 2 : 23, 'And it came to pass that He went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day; and His disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.' Leviticus 2 : 14, 'And if thou offer a meat offering of thy first fruits unto the Lord, thoushalt offer the meat offering of thy first fruits, green ears of corn dried by fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.' Leviticus 23 : 14 - And ye shall eat neither bread nor parched corn, nor green ears until the self same day that ye have brought an offering unto your God.' Gen. 41 : 5, - concerning Pharaoh's second dream - 'And he slept and dreamed the second time; and behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.' Job 24: 24, says the wicked are 'cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.'

"It is a general truth that those plants which have many varieties and a wide range as to soil and climate have been grown for ages. For example : the pea and the bean, wheat and oats, the rose and the lily, the apple and the pear, etc., etc. Now, Indian corn in this fact can establish a great age, for its varieties need only end with the skill and the patience of the cultivator, while its range in America is from 40 S. Latitude to 54 N. Latitude; in Europe, over its central and southern portions; and in Asia, over limited areas of India, China and Japan.

"It is not certain that Indian Corn has ever been found in its wild state, though we have a variety called ' wild corn,' in which each kernel is covered with a husk. The U. S. Patent Office Report for 1853 has a cut of it, and says it is to be found growing ' in the Rocky Mountains of North America down to the humid forests of Paraguay-' We have the rather doubtful authority of native Indians of Paraguay that it has been found growing wild in their forests. The seed of this wild species will grow the common and husked varieties, which would seem to prove it not the primitive type, but a variety escaped from cultivation.

"An unimpeachable history of Indian Corn can never be written, as the subject is full of counter-facts, contradictions and speculations. Learned authorities, both early and late, have differed as to its origin, some claiming it a native of Asia, others of America.

"Bock, in 1532, forty years after the discovery of America, and Ruellius, in 1 536 ascribe to it an Arabian origin. Fuchsius, in 1542, mentions its introduction into Greece from Asia. Bonafous, in 1836, calls attention to the assertion of certain Spanish authors that corn came to Spain from Arabia, though he himself believes the plant a native of China. He speaks of an illustrated work on maize written by a Chinese botanist, Li-chi-tchin, in 1552, which seems to have had great weight with him in his decision on this question. A map of the 13th century, called ' Chart of Incisa,' describes 'meliga' as a 'grain of golden color and partly white.' In 1204, the Crusaders are said to have brought a few of these grains from Asia Minor into Italy; and in 1250 the Italian Crescenzio describes its methods of culture, which strikingly coincide with our methods of culture of corn.

"An argument of considerable weight is deduced from the general statement of botanists, that plants of one family mainly inhabit a common locality. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, Indian rice, sorgum - all the allied family of corn are of Eastern nativity. Now, suppose a Western origin for corn is admitted, then it is separated from its kindred. If of Eastern origin, then how came it here, can only be answered by inference. There are marks and relics of an ancient civilization scattered here and there over our land - a civilization beyond any found here at the time of America's discovery in 1492. That it came from the East over a Northwestern highway, connecting Asia and America many scholars believe. •Admitting this, we can easily see that the migrating nations might bring with them many seeds and plants, and among them Indian Corn.

"The Fair God of the Mexicans, a God of peace and peaceful arts, is supposed to have been a Caucasian brought by some untoward wind or wave upon these Western shores. There is a tradition that when he lived on earth an ear of corn was as much as a man could carry. Putting this tradition with the fact that corn is so involved in their religion and religious rites, it is easy to surmise that the same wave that brought their God brought their seed likewise. Frail craft have been driven over the wide ocean and have made a safe landing on these shores several times within the past century.

" Many modern authorities, as added proof of an Eastern origin for corn, point to the grain found at Athens, and at Thebes. Rifaud called this grain 'Maize.' Virey calls it 'Sorghum Bi-color,' a native of the East; Delile says, of Egypt.

"There is a long list of weighty authorities arrayed on the side of its American origin. Dodon-ius in 1583, Gerarde in 1597, Matthioli in 1645, wrote of its introduction into Europe from America. Thomas Nuttall and De Candolle assign it to a South American origin. Humboldt, Darwin and Flint maintain its home is this side of the ocean. They deny that 'meliga' mentioned on the Chart of Incisa is the species 'Zea Mays.' They claim no treatise on corn was ever written prior to the discovery of America, that since the Portuguese had discovered Java as early as 1495, fifty-five years gave ample time to introduce it thence into China. They make much of the fact that no traveler in Asia or Africa, though he describes minutely the products of the soil, ever makes mention of this most important one. Again, that it seems strange beyond belief that if known at all it was not in common cultivation, since it spread so rapidly upon its introduction from America. On the other hand, in America it was found from Chili to Montreal, and as far West as the discoverer penetrated the ' native wilds.' Columbus found it on the Island of Cuba; Cortez found it in Mexico; Pizarro found it in Peru, the Puritans found it in New England; the James River colonists found it in Virginia; Cartier found it in Canada, and Marquette, in 1673, found it in Illinois, "Nor did it exist alone in one variety, but in many.

Winthrop mentions corn of various colors.

Josselyn says: 'The blew is commonly ripe before the others.' The Mandans, a North-western tribe, had a very early variety. The King Philip corn of the Wampanoags has descended to us. Sweet-corn was found on the borders of the Susquehanna, and yet other varieties in other sections and among other tribes".

We may add to this very interesting chapter, that corn is the term universally applied to bread stuffs in the old world; a corn-field is a wheat-field, and corn is simply wheat. The corn of Scripture is wheat or some of its allies, and it is just possible that Darwin meant wheat when he says he found a head in a shell. An ear of our corn would not bend, and it would take a considerable sized shell that would permit a stiff ear like that of Indian corn, to become imbedded without bending. Corn is a name given to the maize, simply because it was another item in the list of breadstuffs, in use by the Indians. A want of perception of these facts has made the history of Indian corn a perplexing study.