COIX 



Species and Varieties 



JOB'S TEARS 



Gigantea- 

 aquatica Series. 



Lacryma-Jobi 

 Series. 



Cultivated 

 Forms. 



Edible 

 Grain. 



Wholesome. 



India. 



species thus isolated are certainly very distinct. They differ in structure of leaf, 

 flower and fruit, etc. , as well as in habitat and economic properties. The wild states 

 of c. z,ncrywia-Jobi have the capsular-spathe generally more or less spherical, and 

 only slightly drawn out at the apex into a pyriform shape and obscurely angled 

 and universally bluish-white (never chalky- white). The leaves are broad, often 

 distinctly auriculate, quite glabrous, except for the double row of ascending teeth, 

 along each of the veinlets of the upper surface a peculiarity that gives the texture 

 of the leaf the appearance of being embroidered and makes it backwardly hispid. 



The (/if/antea-a<innticn series of coix are always wild plants; j/ij/ufe is 

 found on the lower hills dry soils a robust erect plant, the in swamps 

 and most frequently as a floating weed, 20 to 100 feet in length. The capsular- 

 spathe is invariably pyriform, much drawn out on the apex, the actual mouth 

 cut obliquely into an elongated lip, which is often somewhat serrulate, ripe fruit 

 prominently angled, and having two or three furrows along its flattened face, of 

 a dull greyish-white to brown colour and very hard. The leaves are much shorter 

 than in c. i;nci-t/nm-.roi>i, most frequently only faintly auriculate, and the upper 

 (inner) surface is often marked by curious transparent glands, which in the young 

 leaves are tipped with hairs ; on the outside the leaves are quite glabrous except 

 near the extremity of the sheath, where a few glands of an exceptionally large size 

 are generally present. 



The forms of c. r>c-j/i-Jofc< in the wild state have the capsular-spathe 

 invariably bluish-white, a colour which rapidly disappears under cultivation. In 

 the variety known as tttcnocarjut the capsular-spathe is elongated until it be- 

 comes cylindrical, but when cultivated the tubes (so formed) change in colour 

 to chalky-white or become almost straw-coloured. In other forms, instead of 

 elongating, the capsular-spathe becomes short and spherical, until fruits often not 

 more than an eighth of an inch long are found and others more than double that 

 size, but always broader than long ; hence the development in these examples 

 may be said to be in the opposite direction to that in Htenoearim. 



When they exist as wild plants the shell in all forms of c. z>c*-{/jn-jro6i 

 remains hard and polished, and, while it may darken in colour and become pink, 

 brown or even black, is never found soft in texture nor chalky-white in colour. 

 But under cultivation the spathe loses the bluish-white colour, becomes soft- 

 shelled, and of a chalky-white or straw-colour to deep blue, brown or black ; 

 but in all these cultivated states it assumes a new character viz. the leaf- 

 sheath, on being transformed into what I have called the capsular-spathe, 

 retains its veins as pronounced striations, so much so as to give the grain (in 

 husk) a striped appearance. In the elongated semi-pyriform states of cultivated 

 c. T^acrynia-Jotti there is also a further peculiarity viz. that a portion at the 

 base of the fruit-spathe becomes constricted into a well-marked annular disc. 

 The condition with a soft and striated shell and basal annulus appears to con- 

 stitute the variety known to botanists as *ia-yuen a name given in honour of 

 the Chinese General who is supposed to have first pointedly directed attention 

 to the plant. 



$Jjj? Cultivation as Food. This curious edible grain might almost be said 

 to be unknown to the inhabitants of India generally, except as a weed of 

 cultivation. To many of the aboriginal tribes, however, such as those of 

 the Central Provinces, Sikkim, Assam and Burma, it is an important 

 article of diet. The plant grown as a regular field crop is invariably one 

 or other of the many forms of the variety Ma-ynen already sufficiently 

 described. But in times of scarcity the wild forms of these plants are (all 

 over India) resorted to as articles of food. The grain is held to be sweet 

 and wholesome, the only objections to it being the smallness of the supply 

 and the hardness of the shell. In the forms specially cultivated the shell 

 is soft and amenable to ordinary methods of milling. 



Roxburgh was apparently unaware that coix had to be included 

 among the edible cereals of India, though doubtless he had read Rumphius's 

 description (1750) of its cultivation in the islands of the Malaya, also 

 Loureiro's account of it in Cochin-China. In the Agri.- Horticultural 

 Society of India (Trans., 1841, viii., 348) mention is made of the grain 

 being sent from Amherst. Mr. Riley, who presented the sample, said the 



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