249 _MONOHYPOGYNES. 
sidered as the sweetest and most nutritive food for cattle.— 
Ainslie’s Materia Indica, vol. ii. p. 28. At page 59 of the 
same volume, Dr. Ainslie mentions that the fresh leaves of 
the sweet Rush or Lemon-Grass (Andropogon schenan- 
thus) are sometimes used by the English in India as a substi- 
tute for tea; and that the white succulent centre of the leaf- 
bearing culms is often put into curries to give them an agree~ 
able flavour. The most important part of the Grasses to 
man is the seed. This part contains a large quantity 
starch (586) and gluten (619), and is very nutritious. Hence 
the extensive cultivation of Wheat, Oats, Barley, Indian 
Corn or Maize, Rice, &. These kindsare preferred, as M- 
De Candolle observes, not so much because they are better 
than the seeds of other Grasses, but because they are larger- 
The seed of the Rye (Secale cereale) furnishes an agreeable 
kind of flour, much used for bread in some countries. The 
seeds of the Floating Fescue (Festuca fluitans) are sweetish, 
and are sometimes eaten in Poland. In Iceland and im 
- Greenland the seeds of the Sea-lyme-Grass (Elymus 
narius) are made into bread. The small round seeds of I 
lian Millet, Panicum Italicum) are much valued by the native 
= “ndians, ‘who make cakes of it, and also a kind of porridge 
_ They use Cynosurus coracanus in the same way ; it is called 
_ Natchenny by the Europeans.—Ainslie. Rice (Oryza sa- 
__ tiva) and Indian Corn, (Zea Mays) contain little or no gluten: 
it is to the large proportion of gluten which it contains that 
Wheat owes its superiority to other kinds of grain. The 
_ seeds of the Grasses are also important from the facility with 
which they can be made to ferment and furnish alcohol, the 
