CEREALS 



17 



16. Importance of grains in ancient times. Many facts 

 go to show that cereals must have l)een among the very 

 first plants raised from seed. The Roman ceremonies, before 

 referred to, were patterned after religious rites which had 



Fir,. 6. — Rice. A, part of a flower-fluster 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 



