Indian Corn

Abstract

I HAVE just found in Nakamura's “Kimmō Dzui,” first edition, 1666, Book xvi. fol. 7b, a Japanese wood-cut of Indian corn, with its Japanese and Chinese names as I gave in my previous letter (p. 392, ante). This figure proves that, though Kaempfer does not mention the plant in his “History of Japan,” 1727, yet, through his seeing to it, he must have recognised as a fact the introduction of maize to Japan before the time of his sojourn in it; for most illustrations of the biological objects in his noted “History” (vol. i. tab. ix.–xiv.) are actually found to have been reproduced from the above-mentioned, once very popular, Japanese cyclopædia (Books xii.–xv.).