USES OF PLANTS. 143 



phyti'vorous* species is immense, for the quadruma'na,f the 

 gnawers, the pa'chyderms,:}: and the ruminants, all observe a 

 vegetable diet ; and man himself derives most of his food from 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



Among the most important alimentary plants, the first are the 

 cereals. Under this name we designate plants of the family of 

 grasses, which afford nourishment to man and most domestic ani- 

 mals ; namely, wheat, rye, barley, oats, maize, and rice. There 

 is in the interior of their seed, betwixt the spermoderm and the 

 embryo, a considerable deposit of amylaceous matter, designed 

 to nourish the young plant, and designated by botanists under 

 the name of albumen or perisperm ; it is this matter we use for 

 food. We have already studied the history of these plants, con- 

 sequently it is useless to repeat it. We will, however, add here, 

 that the perisperm of the cereals, and consequently the flour 

 obtained by grinding them, is essentially composed of fecula or 

 starch, ordinarily mixed with a certain quantity, of a substance 

 named gluten, which considerably resembles animal matter. 

 Wheat flour contains more gluten than any other, and for this 

 reason, it makes better bread and is more nutritious ; rye also 

 contains it, but there is none in rice, oats, &c. 



Other plants also furnish abundance of fecula, but not from the 

 same part as in those mentioned ; sometimes it is in the coty'le- 

 dons of the seed, sometimes in tubercles, and at other times in 

 the very substance of the stems or roots ; thus, peas and beans 

 and some other plants of the family of Legumino'sae, furnish 

 edible seeds, the coty'ledons of which contain the same as the 

 albumen of the cereals, a great deal of fecula, and a certain 

 quantity of gluten mixed with sugar and some other matters. 

 Whatever part this fecula may occupy, it in general constitutes, 

 as in the pericarp of the cereals, depositories of nutritive matter 

 for the nourishment of the young plant, or of new shoots. 



The tubers of the potatoe owe their nutritious qualities to the 

 quantity of fecula they contain ; the same is true of batatas\\ 

 (the Spanish or sweet potatoe), a species of convolvulus, originally 



* Phyti'vorous. From the Greek, phuton, plant, and oro, I eat; plant, 

 eating. 



t Quadruma'na. From the Latin, quadrinvs, formed from quatuor, four, 

 and manus, hand ; having four hands. 



t Pa'chyderm. From the Greek, pachus, thick, and derma, skin. 



Amyla'ceous. From the Latin, amy'lum, starch ; starchy. 



|| Batatas is either a Malay or Mexican word. The plant is a native of 

 both the E.ast and West Indies, and China. It was first carried to Spain 

 from the West Indies, and annually imported into England, and sold as a 

 delicacy. It is the potatoe of Shakspeare and his cotemporaries, the com- 

 rnon or Irish potatoe being then scarcely known in Europe. 



