MILLER 



MILLET 



201 



( 1862 ) ; Tales and Sketches ( 1863 ) ; Edinburgh and 

 its neighbourhood (1863); Leading Articles, with 

 preface l>y Kev. John Davidson (1870). 



Miller's services to science have undoubtedly 

 been great, but he is even more distinguished as 

 a man than as a savant. Honest, high-minded, 

 earnest, and hugely industrious, he was a true Scot, 

 a hearty but not a sour Presbyterian (for he loved 

 Burns as much as be revered Knox ) ; and there are 

 few of whom Scotland has better reason to l>e proud 

 tban 'the stone-mason of Cromarty." Miller was 

 married to Lydia Mackenzie F rater in 1837. She 

 assisted him in literary work, and possessed good 

 taste anil ability. She wrote on Cuts ami Dogs 

 (1856), and her eldest daughter, Harriet Miller 

 Davidson, wrote several serial tales. Besides his 

 autobiography, see the Life by Peter Bayno (2 vols. 

 1871 ), and a short one by \V. K. Leask ( 1896). 



Miller, JOAQUIK, the pen-name of Cincinnatus 

 Iliner Miller, an American poet, born in Indiana, 

 in 1841. Removing with his parents to Oregon in 

 1854, he liecame a miner in California, was with 

 Walker in Nicaragua, and afterwards lived with 

 the Indians till 1800. He then studied law in 

 Oregon, and set up in practice in 1863, after a 

 Democratic paper that he edited had l>een sup- 

 pressed for disloyalty. He was a county judge 

 from 1S66 to 1870, and then visited Europe ; In 

 England his first volume of verse was published. 

 He afterwards settled as a journalist in Washing- 

 ton, and in 1887 in California. In 1890 he revisited 

 England. 



His poems include Sontjt of the Sierra* (1871 ), of the 

 Suiitanat (1873). of the Detect (1875), of Italy (1878), 

 nd of the Mexican Seat (1887); hi prose works, The 

 Danitet in Uie Sierrni ( 1881 ). S/iailoici of f-hatta (1881), 

 nd '>. nr the Oold-Kelen of the Sierra* ( 1884 ). He also 

 wrote The Danitet, a successful play, and Sty Life amunii 

 tiie Mixloci (\TA). 



Miller, JOE. See JEST-BOOKS. 

 Miller, WILLIAM. See ADVENTISTS. 



Miller. WILLIAM HALLOWS (1801-80), professor 

 of Mineralogy at Cambridge, is especially dis- 

 tingiii.-hed for bis system of Crystallography (q.v.). 



Miller's Thumb. See BULLHEAD. 



Millet, a grain, of which there- are several kinds, 

 the produce of species of Panicum, Setaria, and 

 allied genera. The genus Panicum contains many 

 species, natives of tropical and warm temperate 

 countries, ami some of which, as Guinea Grass 

 (<i.v.), are amongst the largest fodder grasses. 

 The flowers arc in spikes, racemes, or panicles; 

 the glumes very unei|iial, one of them often very 

 minute ; each npikelet containing two florets, one of 

 which is often barren. The genus Setaria has a 

 spike-like panicle, with two or' more bristles under 

 the glumes of each spikelet. Common Millet (Pant- 

 rum niilun; inn) is an annual grass, three or four 

 feet high, remarkably covered with long hairs, which 

 stand out at right angles. It has a much-branched 

 nodding panicle ; the spikelets are oval, anil contain 

 only one seed. It is a native of the East Indies, but 

 is extensively cultivated in the warmer parts of 

 Europe ami oilier quarters of the world. The grain, 

 wliieli is very nutritious, is only about one-eighth 

 of an inch in length. It is used in the form of 

 groats, or in Hour mixed with wheat-Hour, which 

 makes a good kind of broad ; but bread mode of 

 millet alone is brittle and full of cracks. Poultry 

 are extremely fond of millet. Other species, /'. 

 ''. /'. friini''iitnr,einn, ami /'. jiilumim, are 

 cultivated in different parts of India, chiefly on 

 light and rather dry soils, yielding very abundant 

 <ri.|. Millet of various species is the -tuple food- 

 grain of India as a whole, and not rice, as is often 

 thought. German Millet, or Mohar (Setaria yer- 



a, Common Millet (Panicum milia- 

 ceuin) ; 6', German Millet (Setaria 

 germanica). 



manira), and Italian Millet (S. italica) regarded 

 by many as varieties of one species, and probably 

 originally from the East, although now naturalised 

 in the south of Europe are cultivated in many of 

 the warmer parts of Europe, in India, and other 

 countries. Italian millet is three or four feet in 

 height; German 

 millet is much 

 lower, and its 

 spike compara- 

 tively short, 

 compact, and 

 erect ; it is less 

 valuable as a 

 corn-plant. The 

 grains of both 

 are very small, 

 only about half 

 as long as that 

 of Common Mil- 

 let ; but they 

 are extremely 

 prolific, one root 

 producing many 

 stalks, and one 

 spike of Italian 

 millet often 

 yielding two 

 ounces of grain. 

 The produce is 

 estimated as 

 five times that 

 of wheat. The 

 grain of these 

 millets is im- 

 ported into Britain for feeding cage-birds. It is 

 used for soup in the south of Europe. To the 

 same tril>e of grasses belong the genera Paspahim, 

 Pennisetum, Penicillaria, Digitaria, and Milium. 

 1'ii.yuitnm exile is common in Africa ; and 1'. 

 scrobieiilatum is cultivated on poor soils in India. 

 Penicillaria spicata or Pennisetum ti//)h<iit/< nm, 

 often called Egyptian Millet and Guinea Corn, is 

 cultivated in Africa and India, and the south of 

 Europe. Pennisetum distichmn causes much incon- 

 venience to the traveller in Central Africa, the 

 little bristles which are attached to its seeds 

 making them stick to the clothes and pierce the 

 skin. lUijiturin sangiiinalit, or Polish Millet, is 

 cultivated in Poland, where the grain is used 

 like rice. It is a common grass in tropical 

 and warm countries, and in many parts of 

 Europe ; in Britain it occurs in the south of 

 England, where it is probably only an intro- 

 duced weed of cultivation. The spikes in this 

 genus are compound, and from their appearance 

 give it the names Digitaria and Fitiyer-tjrass. 

 The Millet Grass (Milium effiuntm) of Britain, 

 occasionally found in shady woods, is a very 

 beautiful grass, three or four feet high, with a 

 spreading pale panicle of small flowers. Another 

 species of the same genus (M. nigricans) is the 

 Maize de Guinea of Peru, where its seeds are con- 

 verted into a very white flour. The name Indian 

 Millet is sometimes given to Durra (q.v.). 



Millet, JEAN FRANCOIS, painter, was born in 

 the village of Gruchy, near Greville, on the 4th of 

 October 1814. The son of a farmer, he owed much 

 in his childhood to his grandmother, a woman of 

 great piety and individuality, and to her brother, 

 who had been a priest ; and he was taught enough 

 Latin to enjoy the Vulgate and Virgil. For a time 

 he aided his father as a farm-labourer ; but, having 

 manifested great taste for drawing, he was at 

 length, in 1832, placed under Monchel, a painter in 

 Cherltourg. whom he assisted in the execution of 

 two sacred subjects now in the church of the 

 Trinity there, and who induced the municipality 



