CHAPTER II 

 CEREALS 



14. What cereals are. The ancient Romans, long before 

 the Christian era, held each year at seed-time and harvest 

 great festivals in honor of their goddess Ceres whom they 

 worshiped as the giver of grain. In these celebrations offer- 

 ings of wheat and barley, called cerealia munera or "gifts of 

 Ceres," held a most important part. Thus it was that the 

 bread-producing grains came to l)e known as cerealia or 

 cereals. We now include under this name not only wheat 

 and barley but also rice, oats, rye, maize or Indian corn, 

 and a few other grains of less importance, such as buckwheat. 



15. Characteristics of cereals. The general appearance 

 of the most important grain-plants is shown in Figs. 1 to 15. 

 As will be seen, they all agree in having narrow grass-like 

 leaves, and slender upright stems bearing numerous flowers 

 in "ears" or "heads," and finally, kernels enclosed by "chaft"" 

 or "husks." In all but maize each separate kernel ifi covered 

 completely by two or more of these chaffy envelopes, and 

 even in maize some thin papery chaff may be seen attached 

 to the cob at the base of each kernel. All the cereals are 

 annuals; that is to say, each completes its span of life within 

 a 3^ear. All of those mentioned, except buckwheat, are grasses 

 which have been more or less changed from their wild state 

 by ages of cultivation. 



Let us look more closely at the flowers of the oat. Although 

 appearing rather unhke what we ordinarily call flowers, 

 they have, as will be seen from Figs. 2 and 3, all the parts 

 essential to a true flower. Indeed, because of their simplicity 

 and perfection they afford a convenient standard with which 

 to compare other flowers. In the center of the oat flower, 

 as of flowers in general, is a lyistil, in which may be distin- 



11 



