[Sca-cooks] Turkeys ARE Period!

[Terry Decker]

> >There was quite a bit of confusion as to where things came from.  Fuchs
>>(1541) refers to chili peppers as Indische and Calcuttisha Pfeffer and
>>maize
>>as Turkishe Korn (if I got the spellings correct).  That beats out Gerard
>>by
>>half a century.
>
> If I remember correctly, Finan, John J., Maize in the Great Herbals,
> suggests that maize was referred to as "Indian corn" not out of a
> confusion between the New World and Asia but because Pliny described
> something that sounded similar called "Indian corn" and maize was by
> some misidentified with that.
> -- 
> David/Cariadoc

Fuchs didn't connect maize with Pliny's Indian corn, which I think may have 
been pearl millet, rounder and smaller than maize seeds but similar enough 
to be confusing if you have never seen a specimen.

Dodoens copied Fuchs and expanded on Fuchs' work making the connection to 
Pliny's Indian corn.  Dodoens severed the connection in the 1583 edition of 
his herbal.  Gerard copied Dodoens but I don't recall him making the 
connection to Pliny, so he may have used a later edition.

The best information I've found on this conundrum is a small article from 
the New England Historical Geneological Society discussing how the Pilgrims 
identified Indian corn which can be found at:
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/publications/NEA/6-5_018_Pilgrim.asp

I particularly like footnote 8.

Bear