N. O. GRAMINE^I. 1365 



purple ; pales 2, nearly equal, falling short of the glumes, lower 

 3-neived, upper 2-nerved and with inflexed margins ; lodicules 

 fleshy, truncate ; stamens 3, protruded ; female spikelets nearly 

 sessile, closely arranged in pairs on a thick spongy axis, forming 

 a compact cylindrical spike surrounded at the base by broad 

 imbricated bracts, upper flower of spikelet barren ; glumes 2, 

 broad, thick and fleshy at the base, the lower emarginate, ciliate, 

 the upper truncate ; pales 2, lower broad and blunt, the upper 

 much longer, closely adhering to the ovary ; lodicules none ; 

 ovary sessile, ovoid, styles very long, filiform, drooping. Fruit 

 (the grain) roundish or reniform, compressed, smooth, shining, 

 yellow, white, red or spotted. (Duthie.) 



Uses : — It is considered by Mahomedan physicians to be 

 resolvent, astringent, and very nourishing ; they consider it to be 

 a suitable diet in consumption and a relaxed condition of the 

 bowels. In Europe it is much used as a valuable article of 

 diet for invalids and children under the names of Polenta 

 (Maize meal) and Maizena (Maize flour). In Greece the silky 

 stigmata are used in decoction in diseases of the bladder, and 

 have lately attracted attention in America under the name of 

 Corn silk, of which a liquid extract is sold in the shops as a 

 remedy in irritable conditions of the bladder with turbid and 

 irritating urine ; it has a marked diuretic action The meal 

 has been long in use in America as a poultice, and gruel is 

 also made of it. In the Concan an alkaline solution is prepared 

 from the burnt cobs and is given in lithiasis. 



In the United States for starch manufacture from maize it 

 has been found desirable to get rid of the oily embryo — this 

 is done by machinery. The embryo is too rich for feeding 

 stock unless the oil is removed — this is done in the hydraulic 

 press, and the cake when ground into meal is very valuable 

 as a food for stock. The oil promises to be useful for medicinal 

 purposes instead of olive oil. 



Chemical composition.— The average results of the analysis of three varie- 

 ties of maize in an undried state by Poison, yielded in 100 parts, 54-37 starch, 

 8'83 nitrogenous substance, 4*50 fat, 2*70 gum and sugar, 15*77 cellulose, 1216 

 water, and 1*67 ash. Poggiale found on an average in 160 parts of the dried 

 grain, 64*5 starch, 6*7 fat, and 9*9 nitrogenous substance. Church found it to 



