348 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES, 



Spelt contains less gluten than other species of wheat: 

 it affords beautifully white flour for pastry, and is also 

 much used for starch. 



Emily. I should have thought that it would have re- 

 quired more gluten to make starch than to make bread ? 



Mrs. B. No ; starch consists almost wholly of pure 

 fecula, and may be obtained from potatoes as well as from 

 wheaten flour. 



Rye is of so hardy a nature that it accommodates itself 

 to almost all soils and all climates : its straw is longer 

 and firmer than that of wheat, which renders it peculiarly 

 adapted to thatching : it contains so little gluten that it 

 cannot be made into bread without an admixture of wheat. 



Emily. It is, then, no doubt, on this account that the 

 poor Scotch Highlanders, who cannot afford to mix wheat- 

 en flour with it, eat it baked in cakes instead of bread. 



Mrs. B. It is chiefly oats, I believe, that are thus 

 eaten in Scotland. 



Barley is principally used for fermentation. It contains 

 a great quantity of saccharine matter : mixed with hops 

 we have seen that it produces beer ; and it is also distilled 

 for spirits. 



In the second series of corn, the grain grows in the 

 form of clusters, each earlet having a separate pedicle or 

 foot-stalk. 



This series contains four genera. 



First. Oats : the husks or glumes have two valves and 

 beards springing from the back part of the husk, instead 

 of growing from the summit, as with barley and rye. 

 Oats afford food both for man and for horses. 



Second A species of oats derived from Asia, the earlets 

 of which incline all in one direction : it is more robust than 

 the preceding, yet it is very liable to be attacked by the 

 disease called smut. 



Third. The Phalaris of the Canary Isles, commonly 

 called Canary seed, used chiefly as food for the birds, for 

 which those islands are so celebrated. 



Fourth genus. Rice, which we derive both from the 

 East and West Indies. Next to the Banana or bread tree, 



1886. Of spelt what is saidl 1887. Of what does starch consist* 

 1888. What account is given of rye'? 1889. And of barley'? 1890. 

 In the second aeries of corn how does the grain growl 1891. What 

 is the first of the four genera of this species'? 1892. What is the second 

 and what is said of it'T 1893. What is tlv th?-^? 



