xi CHIEF KINDS OF FOOD-PLANTS 133 



in temperate climates, rye, barley, and oats. In 

 hot climates rice and millet are important. The 

 New World has given maize, or Indian corn a very 

 important plant now widely distributed. All these 

 are annuals and all require considerable skill to be 

 grown properly, so that it is only relatively advanced 

 people who can grow them on the large scale. 



Next to these the most important seed-bearing 

 plants are the different kinds of beans and peas. 

 These are not of great importance in a country like 

 our own, where wheat is the chief bread plant and 

 everybody can get a certain amount of meat, but 

 they are very important in countries where little 

 meat is eaten, and especially where such cereals 

 as rice are used instead of wheat. The reason is 

 that beans and peas contain, as we have already 

 seen, a great deal of proteid, and, therefore, they can 

 be used partially to replace meat. 



If we were to travel down through France, for 

 instance, one of the things we should notice would 

 be the quantities of different kinds of beans that 

 the people grow in their gardens. They grow 

 them as we grow potatoes, and they eat them at 

 one meal in the day at least just as we eat potatoes. 

 If we travelled on into Spain we should find there 

 that a kind of pea, called the chick-pea, is grown 

 everywhere, and largely takes the place of meat. 



In the same way in China and Japan, where 



