This interpretation, however, savors too much of an effort to bring the signification into harmony with the Mexican name. Moreover, it is difficult to explain the use of the Maya symbol on this theory, as it is undoubtedly frequently employed to denote the grain of maize. For example, it represents the seed from which a corn plant is springing, as on Tro. 29b (see plate LXIV, 32); and one figure in the same division represents a bird plucking it up, while another shows some small quadruped seizing it. It is also frequently represented in all the codices as on a platter or vessel placed as an offering to some deity, and is often given a yellowish tint in these places. That the plant which arises from the symbol in these instances is the maize stalk is admitted by Drs Schellhas and Seler, although they do not seem to recognize the fact that the symbol represents the grain of maize which gives birth to the stalk. However, Dr Seler, in his subsequent paper above referred to, concludes that it refers to the seed, dropping his former interpretation. Both seem to recognize the whole glyph as a symbol of the stalk. Concerning this, Dr Seler says: Indeed, we see in Cod. Mendoza the maize shoot employed to express the word _acatl_, "reed." I believe that the character _kan_ repeats the Mexican idea, the maize stalk. This explains for us the reason why the character _kan_, as above pointed out, always appears among the sacrifices. I fail to understand why this authority applies the symbol to the "stalk," when it is the fruit, the ear, the grain, which furnishes food, and may therefore be very properly used as the symbol of food. In plate LXV, 5, is presented a copy of one of these corn offerings as found on Tro. 9*b. As the vessel containing the offering appears to be a vase, pot, or olla, it seems improbable that the offering it contains should consist of maize stalks. It is true, however, that instances occur, as on plates 21-23, Troano, where the stalk rises from the _kan_ symbols contained in a vessel, but these are evidently given in a figurative sense, as the vessel rests on a serpent. But even here there is evidence that the symbol denotes the grain or ear, and not the stalk, as in the lower right-hand corner of plate 21 a human figure is represented as feeding a bird with the symbol, which can not be construed in this instance as representing the stalk.[227-1]