SPECIES AND VARIETIES 



COIX 



Job's Tears 



i.r.iiu. 



Forms. 



Ornamental. 



by Benl- i (llmt. Eystett.. 1U13, ii., VA, \\. 6, f. 1). Soaccurate, in fact, is Dealer's 

 picture that it might bo reproduced as a modern sketch. But this is not the 

 only interest in it, for in the text the grain is described as striated, a peculiarity, 

 it may bo added, i hut is possessed alone by the cultivated edible forum of the Edible Forma. 

 although no mention is made of its being edible. The plant is also figured 

 obua Bontius under the name of Milium Solis (Hist. Nat. et Med. Ind. 

 dr., lt;-_".', MI I'i.so, hid. Utri. re Nat. et Med., 1658, 152). Turning from these 

 Dpean records to those of the East, we are informed by the authors of the 



ographia Indica that the seeds are " mentioned in Vedic literature and vedlo Time*. 

 to have been one of the cereals which were cultivated by the Aryans 

 tli hill slopes of the Himalaya." "The Arab travellers in the East became Arab Name*, 

 muinted with the seeds and named them Damn Datid " David's tears," and 

 srwards Damn Ayub "Job's tears." Es-Saghani, who died about the year 



mentions them in the Obdb as a well-known strengthening and diuretic Carried to 

 iiif. Tho Arabs introduced the plant into the West, and it has become Europe, 

 nilised in Spam and Portugal, where it is still known as Lagrima de Job." 

 It is significant that the word kasi (or some very similar word) should appear Kasi. 

 and reappear all over India as the vernacular name for one or other of the forms 

 "f this plant. Thus we have the ka-si of the Nagas on the north-east frontier 

 of India, kasei in the Central Provinces, kasai in Gujarat, kraai in Berar, and 

 cheik or kyeit, kulese, and kalinse of Burma, and kosen in Japan. The word 

 -ai or keai in India most frequently denotes a cultivated edible form. The 

 Itivution as an edible gram is at the present day closely associated with the 

 Dngoliuns, and its introduction and distribution in India may have been a 

 squence of the influence of that people ; hence very possibly the explanation 

 the name ka-si. \Cf. Joret, Les PI. dans L'Antiq., 1904, ii., 247.] 

 Habitat and Distribution. There are two undoubtedly wild forms of this 

 it and several cultivated states. By far the most widely distributed is 

 i. ,-yi.i,/-./,,i,i proper. This is met with in the Himalaya, Rajputana, 

 Central Provinces, Bombay, South India, Bengal, Assam, Burma and the 

 States. But its area extends to China, Japan, the Malaya, the American 

 itinent (North, Central and South), the West Indies, Polynesia, the Mascarene 

 ids and Tropical as also Northern Africa, and it is cultivated as a garden 

 riosity in South Europe. It is thus met with throughout the tropics and in 

 warm temperate countries. The other wild species, f. atynntfn (and its 

 riety *'. tuimitira), has a much narrower distribution, is a distinctly tropical 

 lant, and is practically confined to India and Burma. Of the cultivated (or 

 smi-cultivated) special forms of *'. jr,-i-i/m-./v&i the cylindrical-fruited 

 x.i !/// has been recorded as met with in the Naga hills, Burma, the 

 States, Tonkin and New Guinea. The flattened spheroidal form, the 

 lecting link between 1\ i,nerytnn-.iobi and uar. ntenwri>tt, is the special 

 form. It is a wild plant met with chiefly in Burma, the Malaya, China 

 id Japan, and has been named by me uar. moniiifrr. Lastly, the fully 

 Itivated and edible form, .WH-yneii, is grown (so far as India is concerned) Edible, 

 the Central Provinces, Sikkim, the Khasia hills, Burma and the Shan States, 

 outside India it appears to be cultivated in Tonkin, China and the Malaya, 

 it apparently nowhere else. Grisebach in his review of Botanical Geography 

 Soc.,1846, 86) refers to the edible coix as a special feature in the most 

 jrtont area of production of that gram, viz. Eastern Bengal, Assam, Burma 

 the Malaya. In fact were a statement prepared of the geographical features 

 interest in the cultivated plants of British India, Cui* would have to be 

 Dmmented on as characteristic of the tract of country that stretches east by 

 ith from Nagpur to Sikkim, Assam, Burma, the Malaya and China, and be 

 irded as an important food grain with some of the most ancient aboriginal Mongolian 

 ibitants, especially those of Mongolian origin. Country. 



Species and Varieties In the Flora of British India, foix giynntm has Forms met 

 an treated as a variety of r. J>-ryi-./o6<, while <' aqnatica has been with. 

 yarded as a form imperfectly known. It seems probable, however, that all 

 three are fairly distinct plants, separable from each other by constant characters. 

 Whether they should be treated as but one species, with several fairly well-marked 

 varieties, or two or more distinct species, may be open to doubt. It would seem 

 the safer course, however, to accept them as constituting two species with several 

 varieties under each. The best names, if not the most ancient ones (as already Two Species, 

 indicated), would be '. f.irr/-./fc* for the one and *'. f/if/nntea for the other. 

 The latter is preferable to r. /* since it has become better known. The 



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