418 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Graminee. 
and its varieties, as well as Hordeum hexastichon, ca@leste and A’giceras, in a cultivated 
state. : . 
The grasses, forming the greatest portion of the pasture for horses, cattle and sheep, 
in most parts of the world, at the same time that they yield grain, which forms three- 
fourths of the food of man, are necessarily the most important class of plants in an 
economical and political point of view. Their culture forms the greater portion of the 
agriculture of all countries, and has in Europe been studied to an extent, and with a 
care, to which the agriculture of the East is a stranger ; for besides the preparation of 
the soil, and the addition of the composts and manures, the most minute attention has 
been paid, by many scientific farmers, to every point of the culture of each particular 
cereal grass, so that their cultivation has been of late years greatly improved, their 
utmost productiveness very carefully ascertained, and new rules obtained for the use of 
the merely practical farmer. These points embrace a consideration of the species, and 
varieties, their native country, soil, manure, climate, and season of cultivation, with 
the preparation of the seed, its quantity, and the mode of sowing, as. well as the after- 
culture, and the harvesting, including the mode of reaping, the threshing, ascertaining 
the produce, as well as the proportion of flour; besides considering the various uses to 
which the grain, the flour, chaff, and straw, may be applied. Few of these ‘points 
have been accurately ascertained with respect to any of the corn or pasture-grasses 
cultivated in India, though few subjects offer greater inducements for close inquiry, 
and careful experiment. The many Agricultural Societies now established in different 
parts of India will find among them very important subjects for experimental investi- 
gation, as the slightest enlargement in the size of a grain, or the least increase in 
the ‘productiveness of an ear of corn, when extended into the — of a country, 
will so infinitely increase its resources and revenues. 
‘The grains cultivated in Great Britain are chiefly different species, and varieties, of 
Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, and occasionally Maize and Canary Corn (Phalaris cana- 
-riensis) ; to these have been added, in the S. of Europe, Rice, Maize, and the different 
kinds of Millet, which have been chiefly introduced from India, as Panicum miliaceum, 
Setaria italica, and Sorghum vulgare ; Setaria germanica, German millet, and Digitaria 
sanguinalis, or Polish millet. The season of cultivation, in Europe, is confined to the 
summer, with the exception of wheat, which is sown in autumn; but in India, where 
the cultivation of wheat and barley forms the agriculture of the country, as much as 
rice, sugar-cane, and millet, the seasons of cultivation are very different. Wheat, 
barley, and millet ( Panicum miliaceum) being cultivated in the months which correspond 
to the winter of European climates, that is, from October to March; while rice, 
maize, joar and bajra, and the other smaller grains, are cultivated in the rainy 
season, that is, from the middle of June to the middle and end of September. 
The grains which are cultivated in N. India are first, different varieties of wheat, 
Triticum vulgare Nees, which are red and white, Jal and mukhmee, awned and awnless, 
as, first, lal-gehoon, var., autumnale, or moondla-gehoon, fusca, or peela-gehoon, and 
var., 
