XIV. THE FRUIT GIFT. 253 



life : and their grain, filled with the substance which, 

 for universally understood name, may best keep 

 the Latin one of Farina, — becoming in French, 

 'Farine,' and in English, 'Flour,' — both in the 

 perfectly nourishing elements of it, and its easy 

 and abundant multiplicability, becomes the primal 

 treasure of human economy. 



3. It has been the practice of botanists of all 

 nations to consider the seeds of the grasses 

 together with those of roses and pease, as if all 

 could be described on the same principles, and 

 with the same nomenclature of parts. But the 

 grain of corn is a quite distinct thing from the 

 seed of pease. In it, the husk and the seed 

 envelope have become inextricably one. All the 

 exocarps, endocarps, epicarps, mesocarps, shells, 

 husks, sacks, and skins, are woven at once together 

 into the brown bran ; and inside of that, a new 

 substance is collected for us, which is not what 

 we boil in pease, or poach in eggs, or munch in 

 nuts, or grind in coffee; — but a thing which, 

 mixed with water and then baked, has given to 

 all the nations of the world their prime word 

 for food, in thought and prayer, — Bread ; their 

 prime conception of the man's and woman's 

 labour in preparing it — ("whoso putteth hand to 

 the plough" — two women shall be grinding at the 



