xm 



culture, but only to a very trifling extent compared with the ordi- 

 nary and familiar species of Corn. In the wild state, Zisania 

 aquatica, the Canada Rice, Wild Rice, or Tuscarora Grain, is an im- 

 portant species of Grass, bearing large seeds adapted for food : it 

 grows abundantly in the shallow streams, lakes and pools of North 

 America, where the seeds are collected and used as Corn by the 

 wandering Indian tribes of the north-west part of the continent, 

 and furnish subsistence, in their season, to the countless flocks of 

 wild geese, swans, and other water-fowl frequenting that region. 

 Sir_Joseph Banks introduced this Grass into England in 1793, 

 and experiments were made upon its cultivation in Middlesex, 

 Ross-shire, and some other parts of the kingdom, under the idea 

 that it might prove useful as a crop in situations not adapted for 

 rearing more valuable produce. But, though found to grow and 

 ripen its seeds freely on the borders of our rivers, brooks, and 

 ponds, no economical result has yet ensued, notwithstanding the 

 prediction announced by Pinkerton nearly a century ago, that it 

 seemed destined by Nature to become the bread-corn of the North. 



In certain districts of India and Africa, other Grasses are occa- 

 sionally seen under cultivation, but to a very trifling extent com- 

 pared with the more familiar species and kinds of Corn. 



One remarkable circumstance appertaining to the history of the 

 Cereals is that all of them are annuals ; and that, however valuable 

 the foliage of many of the perennial Grasses may be for the main- 

 tenance of our flocks and herds, not any of them appear to have 

 been cultivated, from the most distant periods down to the present 

 time, with the view of employing their seeds as human food. 

 Those of the common Feather Grass, Stipa pennata, are however 

 said to yield a flour as palatable, and otherwise nearly resembhng 

 that of Rice ; while chemical analysis shows those of several other 

 species, belonging to the mixed vegetation of our fields and pastures, 

 equal in nutritive contents to European Grain generally. Wheat 

 alone excepted. The comparatively small size of the seeds has 



