Maitland
WILLIAM, commonly known as SECRETARY LETHINGTON, a Scotch statesman, eldest son of Sir Richard Maitland; born about 1525. He early adopted the reformed doctrines, and was one of the first public men openly to renounce the mass. In 1558 he was ap- MAIZE pointed secretary of state by Mary of Guise. In the following year he joined the Lords of the Congregation, who had taken possession of Edinburgh. In 1560 he was speaker of the Parliament which abolished the authority of the Pope in Scotland. On Queen Mary's arrival in Scotland he was chosen one of her principal ministers, and was continually employed as her envoy to the English court. After the assassination of Moray he be came the life and soul of the queen's party and kept up an active correspondence with Mary, who was then in prison. In 1571 he joined Kirkcaldy in Edinburgh Castle; was proclaimed a traitor by the Parliament, and attainted with his two brothers. On the surrender of Edinburgh Castle Kirkcaldy and his brother were hanged, but Maitland died in prison in Leith, presumably by his own hand, June 9, 1573.
MAIZE (a word of Haitian origin), the Zea mays, a cereal grass of the tribe Phalareæ. The leaves are broad, and hang down from the tops of sheaths.
The flowers are monecious. The males are in loose, terminal, compound racemes; the females in many rows on a spike, enveloped in bracts. Each grain is surmounted by a thread-like style, giving the spike a silky aspect. The seeds, when ripe, are compactly arranged in rows on a rachis. They are flattened at the apex, and may be pale-yellow, white, variegated, blood-red, or purple. The seeds are very firm, the outer part being horny and the central mass more or less brittle and soft.
MAIZE. See CORN, INDIAN.
MAIZE OIL (Corn oil), a pale yellow oil, specific gravity 0.926, pressed from the germ of maize. The germs are obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of starch and are separated from the starch granules by sifting or blowing.
The germs contain approximately 50 per cent. of oil, and yield, by pressing, about 40 per cent. Before being placed on the market the oil is neutralized and partially decolorized, and is then used for cooking, as a salad oil, and in the manufacture of oleomargarine. Lower grades of oil are used in the manufacture of soap.