In an earlier chapter something has been said about the agricultural history of Maize (Zea Mays L.). Its peculiarities call, however, for further study, since—as was already recognised in Lyte's Nievve Herball of 1578— “This corne is a marveilous strange plante, nothing resembling any other kinde of grayne”. Maize is a vigorous annual, whose tall shoot bears a succession of broad distichous leaves; the lowest of these leaves arise at or below the surface of the ground, the buds in their axils producing suckers or tillers. In its general vegetative growth, Maize does not differ essentially from the Gramineae of the Old World, but it was its mode of reproduction which perplexed the botanists of Europe when it was first introduced from America: “for it bringeth foorth his seede cleane contrarie from the place where as the flowers growe, which is agaynst the nature and kindes of all other plantes, which bring foorth their fruite there, where as they have borne their flower”. The main shoot terminates in the male inflorescence, or, in Lyte's words, “at the highest of the stalkes growe idle and barren eares, which bring foorth nothing but the flowers or blossome”. Since in the sixteenth century the function of the stamens was still undiscovered, these blossoms, which were not succeeded by fruits, naturally seemed objectless and “idle”. The female reproductive shoots (Fig. 182, B, p. 356) are borne laterally in the leaf axils at some distance below the male inflorescence.