CHAPTER V 
Uses. 
For manifold uses, and for the universality and supreme import- 
ance of some of these uses, more especially in relation to the food 
of man and beast, the Gramznee are pre-eminent among all the 
families of plants. Claiming our consideration first is the use of 
grains for human food. 
That grains were an important article of food in prehistoric 
times we have seen by the antiquity of their cultivation: at the 
present day, they are the food-staple of more than four-fifths of the 
human race. No doubt grains were used as food long before 
cultivation ; they are still gathered in some countries from various 
species of wild grasses. The most primitive method of preparing 
grains for food appears to have been roasting or parching them, 
either whole or partially bruised, in glowing ashes or hot sand, or 
upon hot stones. At a later period, boiling the grains became the 
universal mode of preparation. From biblical writings (Gen. xviii., 
xix.), we learn that 
leavened and un- 
leavened bread was 
made in very early 
patriarchal times ; 
the ancient Egyp- 
tians baked-loaves 
and cakes, and 
taught the art to 
the Greeks. 
We may consider 
a grain of wheat, 
in its structure and 
composition, as 
typical of all the 
other grains. Ina 
transverse section, 
highly magnified 
(fig. 40), we see that 
the interior portion a é: Pate nee ee are : 
Cotisists’ of Lange, Miciast ram ata aete wheacgis ae? 2 
oblong or rectan- aleurone grains in one layer of squarish cells, and az starch 
gular cells filled grains in large rectangular cells ; # nucleus. 
with numerous 
granules, some large, others small, with few of intermediate size; 
75 
