36 



Food-Grains of India. 



Provinces where both crops are important and whence fairly com- 

 plete returns have been obtained : 



As a general rule wheat and barley are Rabi, or winter harvest 

 crops, being sown at the end of the monsoon and reaped, bet ween 

 January and March. 



The Order Gramineae or Grasses contains between 3,100 and 

 3,200 species. A conspectus of the tribes and genera of this 

 Order — so far as the plants described in the following pages are 

 concerned — is here given : 



vi. AndropogonejE. Saccharum, Sorghum, 



ix. AvENE/E. Avena. 



X. Chlorides, Eleusine. 



xii. HoRDE/E. Triticum, Hordeum. 



xiii. Bambuse^. Bambusa. 



The sequence in which the several kinds of Indian cereals and 

 grain-substitutes are arranged and described in the following pages 

 is that indicated in the above table. A few species have, been, 

 however, relegated to the closing paragraphs of the present 

 Part, because our chemical information concerning them is either 

 very meagre or absolutely wanting. 



In classifying the several kinds of cereals according to their 

 composition the most useful plan to follow is one based on their 

 relative richness in albuminoids. This richness is best expressed 

 in the form previously explained (p. 14) under the name "nutrient- 

 ratio," or the proportion between the albuminoid they contain and 

 their starch, reckoning, however, with their starch, the starch- 



