1888-89-] Notes on Nahiral History in India. 199 



mountains. Botanically, they may be characterised by the 

 staple food of the inhabitants. In the largest province, the 

 southern table-land, the inhabitants live chiefly on various 

 species of millet. Millets are grasses belonging to the genus 

 Panicum, or some of its near allies. Panicum is characterised 

 by having rigid cartilaginous paleee investing the seed, but not 

 adhering to it. The chief millets are — Panicum miliaceum, P. 

 italicum,P. frumentaceum,Paspalum scrobiculatum, and Penicil- 

 laria spicata. Another grass seed is also eaten. Sorghum vulgare, 

 belonging to quite a different botanical family, but popularly 

 classed as a millet. The nourishment afforded by these millets 

 is poor compared with that afforded by wheat, or even barley ; 

 but they grow better on barren, rocky soil. The second region 

 is the alluvial plain, but this region it is necessary to divide 

 into two, owing to the difference in the amount of rainfall, not 

 to the nature of the soil. The west side of India has very 

 little rainfall, in some places not more than two or three inches 

 annually. The east side is perhaps the wettest country in 

 the world. In the Cossya hills the rainfall is 600 inches 

 annually. The difference of rainfall determines the nature 

 of the plants cultivated for food. In the dry west there are 

 wheat and barley ; in the damp east, rice. The whole of the 

 Indus and the upper part of the Ganges valley belong to the 

 wheat country ; the lower part of the Ganges valley to the 

 rice country. With regard to the third region, that of the Ptaj- 

 pootana desert, no cereals grow there, and the people import 

 their vegetable food from other provinces. In the fourth region, 

 that of the Himalayas, and in the higher parts of that region 

 especially, the common plants grown for food are two : Eleusine 

 corocana, a grass of the Chlorid family, characterised by a cluster 

 of secund spikes ; and Fagopyrum, or buckwheat — not a grass 

 at all, but a plant allied to our native Polygonum. With 

 regard to the population using these articles, it may be said 

 generally that about sixty million are millet eaters, sixty 

 million rice eaters, sixty million wheat and barley eaters, and 

 three or four million Eleusine and Fagopyrum eaters. Of 

 course, it must be • understood that these statements are only 

 true in a vague and general way. It is often necessary to 

 content one's self with a general outline of a subject, without 

 filling in all the details, and this is all I aim at giving you. 



