SC - Indian Grain-found in the Medici Archives

[david friedman]

1. I find the pre-columbian stories on the introduction of New World 
foods implausible, because we know that post-columbus they spread 
very fast. Maize and potatoes and capsicum peppers were all useful 
crops for particular purposes. So you have to explain how they could 
sit in Asia or wherever for hundreds of years without spreading to 
Europe, and then suddenly spread all over Europe after Columbus.

2. I have seen a different explanation for Indian corn, I think in 
Finan, John J., _Maize in the Great Herbals_. Apparently Pliny 
describes something he calls Indian corn, presumably because it came 
from India. When maize was introduced to Europe, some herbalists, 
engaged in the project of matching the plants they new with the 
classical descriptions, misidentified it with Indian corn, hence the 
name.
David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
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