96 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIONS. 



valve, or enclosed witliin both hardened valves. Pericarp very thin, adhering to the 

 seed, or rarely loose, coriaceous or crustaceous, or fleshy, or very rarely opeuing into 

 2 valves. Enihryo small at the base of a mealy albumen. Herbs, or rarely shrubs 

 or trees, with hollow stems, interrupted by solid septiform nodes. Leaves alternate, 

 distichous, parallel-veined, sheathing the branches with their- bases, or rarely (chiefly 

 in bamboos) on longer or shorter petioles jointed with the sheath, the latter split 

 open to the very base, and often terminating in a small scarious, fringed, or naked 

 appendage called a Ugule. Spilieleta variously arranged in terminal spikes, racemes 

 or panicles. 



TlilTICIE.E. 

 SpileJefs all fertile or rarehj pnlygamous, spicatc, sessile or siih-sessile on the notches 

 of the usually wared rachis. One to many-flowered, the upper flower usually arrested. 

 Glumes two, rarely one, variahle in length. Olunielles herhaceous, or sub-coriaceous, 

 rarely membranous, the lower awned, at or beloiv tlie top, or muticous ; lower glumelle of 

 the base of the spihelet answering to the lower glume. Stamens three, rarely one. Stigmas 

 sessile or sub-sessile, divergent, protruding from the sides, and often (awards the base of 

 the flower. Caryopsis with a linear hilary spot. 



Masisueis, Linnmts. 

 M, sp. Nicobars (K.). 



TiuTicuM, Linnaus. 

 ' * T. SATivrii, L. (il.) 



Gyung-sa-ba. "Wheat. 



"Wheat docs not grow in Pegu, but it grows largely in the neighbourhood of Ava. 



HoRDEUM, Linnaus. 



"'' H. HEX.ISTICHON. (M.) 



Mu-yan. 



This is the species said by Craufurd to grow in the Malay countries, but not 

 to be generally known by the natives. Mason observes : " !Xot withstanding this 

 testimony, the Burmese have a name for Barley, which frequently occurs in their 

 books. It constitutes one of their seven kinds of sa-bci, or cereal grasses, and its 

 corresponding Pali name is identical with the Sanscrit name of barley." 



Barley, the main source of European beer, belongs to this tribe, but barley is 

 not the only grain beer can be made from. The process of preparing beer from a 

 cereal is as follows : The grain is first steeped and exposed to moist heat till it 

 germinates, thereby converting its starch into sugar. Germination is now arrested 

 by drying it in a kiln, and the di'ied and saccharine product, or malt, is then infused 

 in boiling water, whence results sweet wort. To this a bitter decoction of some sort 

 is adiled, that of hops being the best, and the whole is then subjected to a gentle 

 fermentation, and the result is beer. Distillation of the fermented grain yields 

 a spirit variously known as arrack, whisky, or brandy as the case may be. 



EoTiBOELLiA, Linnwus. 



E. EXAXTATA, L. India. 



R. GLABRA, Eoxb. Bengal. 



Peltophoeus. 

 P. (Manlsuris) granularis, L. India. 



P. MYURus, L. Coromandel Coast. 



OrjnuEus, R. Browne. 



Spilcclets 1 -flowered, awnless, singly sessile in notches on alternate sides of a 

 simple spike, the axis articulate at each node. Lowest empty glume hard, the two 



' * distinguishes cultivated or introduced species. 



