236 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



for hay. This is the " Common millet " of Europe, the 

 M ilium of the Romans ' from which the name millet is 

 derived. 



Japanese barnyard millet (Echinochloa frumentacea) . 

 This is also known as Sanwa millet and Billion-dollar grass. 

 In America it is grown purely as a forage crop, but in 

 Japan and India the grain is used as a cheap human food. 

 The very closely related Echinochloa crus-galli is the 

 common Barnyard millet. 



Ragi or finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is much grown 

 in India as a cereal, but has never attained favor in 

 America. 



Pearl or cat-tail millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is as tall 

 and coarse as the sorghums and is extensively grown in 

 India and Africa as human food. In the United States it 

 is sparingly grown as forage and often called Penicillaria. 



The fruit of the true millets, Panicum, Setaria and 

 Echinochloa, differs from that of nearly all other grasses 

 in having the grain inclosed in a firm box composed of the 

 firmly interlocked lemma and palea. This peculiar fruit 

 deserves a distinct name and for it the name caryodst 

 from the Greek words meaning grain and box seems 

 appropriate. 



344. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica). There is general 

 agreement among botanists that the cultivated foxtail 

 millets have been derived from the green foxtail (Setaria 

 viridis), now a cosmopolitan weedy grass, especially in the 

 tropics and warmer portion of the temperate zone. Green 

 foxtaiHs native in temperate Eurasia and botanists have 

 distinguished about 8 varieties, largely based on the rel- 

 ative length of the awns. 



345. Agricultural history. Foxtail millet is a plant 

 of very ancient cultivation. It is probably a native to 



