[Sca-cooks] maize and cubits
David Friedman
ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Sat Nov 28 20:18:24 PST 2009
...
>Columbus first records maize as a type of millet, but he was
>apparently also aware of the differences. Europeans were quite
>aware of millet having grown panic, foxtail, pearl and probably
>other varieties for food.
>
>Rauwulf was a trained physician and botantis from Augsburg and would
>have been able to differentiate the various types of millet and
>other grains including Indian corn. While the above quote comes
>from Rauwolf's travel book, his Vieretes Kreutterbuech might prove
>more enlightening about the actual plant. (I haven't chased down
>the text yet.)
My memory is that _Maize in the Great Herbals_, by Finan, says that
Maize was called Indian corn not because of the Amerind connection
but because it was misidentified with an Indian corn described by
Pliny. I have no idea if that was a variety of millet or not.
--
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com
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