21 



Cbap. lO.J DIFFERENT KINDS OF GBAIN. 



blade ; this last flowers, too, before the other grain. In the 

 cereals in general it is the thicker end of the seed that throws 

 out the root, the thinner end the blossom ; while in the other 

 seeds both root and blossom issue from the same part. 



During the winter, corn is in tlie blade ; but in the smmo- 

 wmter corn throws out a tall stem. As for millet and panic* 

 tliey grow with a jointed and grooved* stalk, while sesame has 

 a stem resembling that of fennel-giant. The fruit of all these 

 seeds is either contained in an ear, as in wheat and barley, for 

 instance, and protected from the attacks of birds and small 

 animals by a prickly beard bristling like so many palisades; or 

 else It IS enclosed in pods, as in the leguminous plants, or in 

 capsules, as in sesame and the poppy. Millet and panic can 

 only be said to belong to the grower and the small birds in 

 common, as they have nothing but a thin membrane to cover 

 them, without the slightest prot.eftion. Panic receives that 

 name from the pamcule^ or down that is to be seen upon it • 

 the head of it droops languidly, and the stalk tapers gra- 

 dually m thickness, being of almost the toughness and con- 

 sistency of wood : the head is loaded with grain closely packed, 

 there being a tuft upon the top, nearly a foot in length. In 

 miUet the husks which embrace the grain bend downward with 

 a wavy tuft upon the edge. There are several varieties of 

 panic, the mammose, for instance, the ears of which are in 

 clusters with small edgings of down, the head of the plant 

 being double ; it is distinguished also according to the colour, 

 the white, for instance, the black, the red, and the purple 

 3ven. Several kinds of bread are made from millet, but very 

 ittle from panic : there is no grain known that Aveighs heavier 

 ;han millet, and which swells more in baking. A modius of 

 nilletAviU yield sixty pounds' weight of bread; and three 

 iextani steeped in water will make one modius of fermeuty.* 

 ^ kind of millet' has been introduced from India into Italy 

 .vithin the last ten years, of a swarthy colour, large grain, and a 



* Tliis is certainly tbe fact, as Fee says, but it is the same witli all the 

 [raminea. 



" A characteristic of the Panicum miliaceura in particular 



_ Or porridge; "puis." 

 ^ ' It has been suggested that this was maize, but that is indigenous to 

 >outh America Fee has little doubt that it is tUe IIolcus sorglio of Lin- 

 iceus, the " Indian millet," that is meant. 



