; 
a. 
CEREALS 17 
16. Importance of grains in ancient times. Many facts 
go to show that cereals must have been among the very 
first plants raised from seed. The Roman ceremonies, before 
referred to, were patterned after religious rites which had 
Fic. 6.—Rice. A, part of a flower-cluster of beardless rice, natural size. 
B, a spikelet of the same. F, a flower showing its six stamens, single 
pistil (with two styles and stigmas) and two lodicules. K,a ripe kernel. 
B, F, and K enlarged. (Nees.) 
been practised for centuries by the Greeks, among whom 
wheat and barley were greatly prized. Passages in the 
Hebrew Scriptures show that these were the grains cultivated 
throughout Palestine and in the valley of the Nile; and it 
is an interesting fact that a grain of wheat has been found 
