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feet in height, and standing so close that it was difficult to force 

 a way between the stalks. Tlie yield was fifteen and eighteen 

 fold. 



A species of Eleusine is cultivated in Japan and some parts of 

 India as a corn crop. Panicum miliaceum (Indian millet), Panicum 

 pilosum (Chadlee), and Panicum fiumentaceum are also culti- 

 vated in India, yielding a nutritious grain. Paspalum exile pro- 

 duces fundi, or fundungi, the smallest known grain. The grains 

 of Pennisatum dichotomum, another grass, are used in the same 

 region as food under the name of Kasheia. The Abyssinian 

 corn plant, teff, is known to science as Poa Abyssinica. German 

 millet is produced by Setaria Germanica, and Italian millet by 

 Setaria Italica, both largely used as food. The seeds of Zizania 

 aquatica are popularly known in Canada as swamp rice, a service- 

 able grain. Glyceria or Poa aquatica (Manna grass) is a singular 

 example of the seeds of a wild grass used as food. Sir William 

 Hooker, in his " British Flora," tells us that they are gathered 

 abundantly in Holland, where as well as in Poland and Germany, 

 they are used as food, and he quotes de Theis as having " seen 

 the Polanders in the suite of King Stanislaus gather them with 

 great care on the banks of the Meurthe." 



With all this the list of cereal grasses is not nearly exhausted ; 

 indeed, with one or two exceptions, the seeds of all the species of 

 the numerous natural order of Graminese are edible, the only 

 apparent obstacle to the profitable cultivation of the plants that 

 produce them being their diminutive size, which might probably 

 be increased by cultivation. 



But a notice, however brief, of the food products from the 

 cereals would be incomplete without a reference to some of the 

 beverages they furni.sh, several of which are of great antiquity- 

 For some reason, religious or climatic, the vine was not cultivated 

 in ancient Egypt, although in modern times at least it is 

 extensively grown in Nubia. The Egyptians, according to 

 Herodotus, used a substitute made from barley, a sort of beer. 

 In other parts of Africa malt liquor of one kind or another is 

 brewed by the natives from some one or other of the cereal 

 gra.sscs. The .seeds of Holcus Sorghum are used in Africa in the 

 manufacture of a kind of beer, bearing the appropriate name of 

 bouza. Barley, we all know, is extensively employed in this 

 country in the manufacture of beer as well as whisky. From 

 rice a spirit is also distilled in the east, generally known as arrack) 



