View - Roanoke Colonies Illuminated

Title	Secotan
Origtitle	"Indian Village of Secoton"
Caption	John White painting of Secotan, which features several stages of corn growing.
Source	Virtual Jamestown website, taken from Paul Hulton and David Beers Quinn, The American Drawings of John White 1577-1590 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press).
Date	ca. 1585-86
URL	http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/white35.html
Creator	John White
Type	Watercolor
Copyright	The British Museum.
Origin	?

Corn – This term, occurring throughout the Hakluyt text, is, in Hariot’s time, a generic term for “grain.” See OED, note to def. III. 2. a.
p. 13 “a kind of graine so called by the inhabitants; the same in the West Indies is called Mayze; English men call it Guinney wheate or Turkie wheate, according to the names of the countries from whence the like hath been brought.” Bellis hariot mentions three varieties, ripening at different rates (11 to 14 weeks). Jacques Zea mays L. ‘The ears of corn found in South American tombs are of this variety. [Zea mays var. amylacea] Soft Corn Soft corn is planted in South America, Mexico, and our Southwestern States and is used in flour making.” p.22 “”Columbus found a flint corn [Fline or Yankee corn, Zea mays var. indurate Bailey] in the west Indies which has developed from the ‘tropical flint’ and is now planted in Argentina and some European countries. NB-VJB There are several varieties of Zea mays including Soft Corn, Sweet Corn, and Flint Corn . . . which of these, if any, was the Indian corn of the early colonial period? Hariot- p.13 . . . called Mayze: English men call it Guinney wheate or Turkie wheate . . . GUINEA WHEAT 1. (Bot.), a name for Indian corn. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

corne, which is very white, faire