ADLAY— A NEW GRAIN PLANT 

 FROM THE ORIENT 



A Relative of Indian Corn Found in Eastern Asia in a Great Number of 



Varietal Forms^ — Offering an Untouched Field of Work for 



THE Plant Breeder 



P. J. Wester 



Bureau of Agriculture, Philippine Islands 



"JOB'S TEARS" 



Figure 8. Adlay is the native Philippine name for the plant known to us as the source of 

 "Job's tears." Only the hard-shelled beadlike forms are grown in this country and Europe as 

 an ornamental novelty. Some of the grain varieties of adlay that grow in the Philippines have 

 a soft hull that can easily be broken between the fingers. Like its American relative, Indian corn, 

 adlay lacks gluten, but is richer in fat than either corn or rice, making it a better balanced food 

 than any other tropical grain crop. 



WHEAT, rice, corn, rye, oats, and 

 barley are the six staple grains 

 which enter into the international 

 commerce of the world. Next follow 

 the sorghum grains, locally of great 

 importance in Africa, India, and China, 

 and the ragi, {Eleusine coracana), 

 extensively grown in India. The vari- 

 ous small-grained millets are relatively 

 unimportant as foods except in circum- 

 scribed areas. This is true also of the 



grain form of Coix lacliryma-johi L., 

 for which the Philippine name adlay^ 

 has been adopted for common usage in 

 place of the cumbersome English 

 name, "Job's tears." 



Though it was known to the writer 

 that this grain was eaten by certain 

 primitive people in the Philippines 

 and India, on coming across a few plants 

 growing in a little village in the interior 

 of the Island of Mindanao in the Philip- 



1 Adlay should be pronounced ad' ly (a of the second syllable silent and y as in "my.") Accent 

 on the first syllable, 



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