FOODS, FOOD-STUFFS, AND FOOD-ADJUNCTS. 33 



Kingdom and from 6 to 10 million hundredweights 

 are imported, mainly from the North of Europe. 



OATS (Avena sativa, L.), though a grain also used 

 from ancient times as a bread-stuff, and still employed 

 in Scotland for oatcake and oatmeal porridge, are 

 grown and imported (both on a very large scale) 

 mainly as cattle food. Nearly 3 million acres in 

 Great Britain are annually devoted to the cultivation 

 of Oats. When decorticated and partially crushed 

 they are known as Groats and are used for gruel for 

 invalids. 



RYE (Secale cereale, L.), said to be a native of the 

 Crimea, is largely grown as a bread-stuff in Northern 

 Europe ; but not to any great extent in the British 

 Isles. The grain is frequently blackened, distorted 

 and 'spurred' by the fungus known as Ergot 

 (Claviceps purpurea, Tulasne), the * Secale cornutum ' 

 of druggists. 



DURRA, GUINEA CORN or TURKISH MILLET, also 

 known in India as Joar, is the grain of various forms 

 of the genus Sorghum, native in India, though now 

 cultivated in Southern Europe and in the United 

 States. In the West Indies it is known as Negro 

 Corn and is made into cakes, but with us it is mainly 

 used for feeding poultry. In the United States the 

 Shaker communities obtain sugar from Sorghum and 

 make carpet-brooms and brushes out of the dried 

 fruit-panicles. Other millets grown in India and on 

 the Continent of Europe are Panicum miliaceum, L. 

 and P. italicum, L. 



BUCKWHEAT (Fagopyrum esculentum, Mcench), be- 

 longing to the natural order Polygonacece, probably a 



3 



