374 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



was carefully calculated to be tlie produce of this plant. Generally 

 4.1iis grain is sold at the rate of 80 to 130 lbs. a rupee. It is consi- 

 dered by natives to be the most nourishing and invigorating of cheap 

 food. On analysis nachni grain has been found to contain on an 

 average 6*53 per cent, of nitrogenous matter, whereas rice contains 

 70*40 per cent., and wheat 13*42. In this respect natchni stands 

 last amongst the cereals of India. Dr. Forbes Watson thinks that 

 want of nitrogen is more than compensated by the mineral constituents 

 of Raggi (nachni). • It is rich in iron required for the blood corpus- 

 cles, and in potash, lime and phosphoric acid essential to various 

 tissues of the body. On the whole natchni stands high in food 

 value." The portion of phosphoric acid in the grain is about 0*4. 



It is extensively used by the poorer classes of Patna, Bhagalpur, 

 Dinajpur, Gorakpur, Behar and other districts of Northern India. 

 In Mysore and other parts of Southern India it is the staple food, 

 sometimes stored there in pits, and keeps without being deteriorated 

 for years. Nachni is eaten in the form of cakes made of the flour, 

 mixed with a sufficient quantity of water and sugar, and baked. 

 The flour is also used by its being stirred with water, then boiled 

 and formed into a sort of thick porridge, named ambil in Goa and in 

 the South of India. Well-to-do people make a sort of pudding, 

 which they call tisana. It is said that in Darjiling a fermented 

 liquor is prepared from the natchni grain. The stocks are given 

 to cattle as fodder or used as fuel. 



Natchni has'not been found in a wild state. Is it the result of the 

 cultivation of the next species, which resembles it, and the grain of 

 which is eaten by poor people during scarcity or famine times ? 

 Fero-usson believes that the name Eleusine corocana, given by 

 Gaertner and Linneus to this plant, is derived from " the Sinhalese 

 Kurakan under which it has been known to and cultivated by the 

 natives (of Ceylon) times out of mind." 



E.'jEgyptiaca, Pers. Syn., I., 82; Roxb., Fl. Ind., I., 345 ; Gyno- 

 surus cegypticus, Linn., Sp. PL, 106 ; Dacfyloctenium cBgijjptiacum, 

 Willd., Kunth. Enum PI. I., 261 ; Dalz. and Gibs., Bomb. Flor., 

 297. 



Ver. Makra, Madliana, Kark-medhana, Malicha, Mansa, Mathna, 

 Chikara, Chota-Mandya, Makar J all; Duthie and Roxburgh. . 



