Show I South American n Jungles i Motherland of Our Corn The sought long-sought motherland of maize historically the chief agricultural agricultural agricultural agri agri- cultural crop in America is credited credited credited cred cred- to the jungles of Central South America according to reports to the National Academy of Science by investigators from the Texas Agricultural Agricultural Agricultural Agri Agri- cultural Experiment station writes Thomas R. R Henry in the Washington Washing Washing- I ton Star Corn was found by the earliest white explorers as a cultivated crop I throughout the Americas essentially essential essential- ly in the form known t lay Jay It had been domesticated by the Indians Indians Indians In In- I from some wild grain but there was no trace of this hypothetical ical ancestor Only two I growths remotely approached it it- it I teosinte in Mexico and Central America and which I grows through the southern United States southward through Mexico I Neither approached closely J 4 very 1 I the uie cultivated a maize which seems to have ha spread from two tw centers j i where two great civilizations had been built up upon it Peru it-Peru Peru and Yucatan The Texas botanists conducted conducted con con- ducted their search for the origin of corn within the grain itself by microscopic study of the structure of its chromosomes or bundles of I genes which are the units of hered hered- ity I These show clearly they report that hat it could have descended neither from teosinte or The former grass they maintain actually actually actu aclu ally appears to be be bea a later development development development develop develop- ment from a cross between n maize and There are cum cuin elements in the corn grown inthe inthe in inthe the United States but these apparently apparently apparently are only later developments I |