148 BRITISH PLANTS 



the Continent; oats, barley, rice, maize or Indian corn, 

 and millet. Indian or great miUet {Sorghum vulgare) is 

 the staple food of the people living on the dry plains of 

 India ; it is also largely grown in parts of Africa under the 

 name of dura, Guinea or kafir corn. Maize (Zea Mais)- 

 contains more sugar and oil than most cereals; it is the 

 only cereal which we owe to America ; in South Africa it 

 is caUed " mealies." 



Wheat is the most valuable of all the cereals, and the 

 general demand for it among the more prosperous of 

 mankind is increasing every year. Besides starch, flour 

 contains protein and a small quantity of oil. A large 

 part of the protein in wheat is contained in a special 

 layer of cells lying close to the surface of the grain. In 

 the best white flour this is removed with the outside 

 husk, with the result that the flour is deprived of a large 

 part of its nourishing qualities. 



Oily Seeds are of more importance to man as a som-ce 

 of oil, extracted for industrial purposes (see p. 152), than 

 as food, although some, e.g., pea-nut, sesame-seed, 

 coconut, and the dessert nuts, are largely eaten, whilst 

 from the oil of the coconut, palm kernel, cotton-seed, 

 pea-nut, cocoa-bean, etc., margarine and other edible 

 fats are made; refined cotton-seed, pea-nut, and sesame- 

 seed oils are also used as salad oils. 



2. Fruits, — ^Fruits in which any considerable quantity 

 of food-stuff is stored are fleshy. These fruits are par- 

 ticularly adapted to attract the attention of birds and 

 provide them with food, but the seeds are preserved from 

 destruction either by being hard and indigestible, or by 

 being enclosed in hard shells (p. 136). The formation of 

 large fleshy fruits seems at first sight a very extravagant 

 means of providing for the dispersal of the seed, but the 

 method is an extremely efficient one, for there are few 

 other means by which seeds can be carried so far or 

 distributed over so wide an area as by birds. 



Cultivated Fruits. — Many succulent fruits have been 

 cultivated by man from very early times, and in the 

 Tropics some, like the banana, form his staple diet. 

 Other examples are apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, 

 peaches, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, red and 

 white currants, grapes, strawberries, oranges, lemons, figs, 



