NOTES ON GRASSES- GROWING IN CEYLON. 



27 



boiling water or boiling milk, and formed into a sort of hasty pudding 

 or thick porridge, and thus eaten. 



" Throughout Mexico it forms the staple food, and is cooked by 

 baking into cakes. 



" Indian-corn, being deficient in gluten, does not make good bread , 

 Its flavour is harsh and peculiar. A weak solution of caustic potash 

 removes this unpleasantness ; but it also deprives it of much of its 

 nitrogenous matter, and so renders it less nutritious than before. 'J his 

 is the foundation of the process for preparing the articles extensively 

 sold under the names of Oswego, Maizena, and Corn-flour. 



" As a mere adjuvant, or auxiliary, prepared Indian-corn may 

 be of value, but mothers and nurses should be earnestly cautioned 

 against injudiciously giving it to infants* 



The following poetical account of the origin of Indian- 

 eorn, from Longfellow's Hiawatha, reminds me of the origin 

 of the Palmyrah Palm, as recorded in a Tamil poem called the 

 Tala Vilas am, where it is stated that after Bramah created man 

 Vishnu asked why he did not provide food for him. On this 

 Bramah trembled like a drop of water on the top of a lotus 

 leaf, put his finger on his chin, and created the ct Culpa tree" 

 which supplied all the wants of man ; and hence the origin of 

 the Palmyra Palm I 



From Hiawatha, pp. 373-6. 



"Till at length a small green feather 

 From the earth shot slowly upward, 

 Then another and another, 

 And before the summer ended 

 Stood" the maize in 8 11 its beauty, 

 With its shining robes about it, 

 And its long, soft, yellow tresses ! 

 And in rapture Hiawatha 

 Cried aloud , " It is Mondamin ! 

 Yes; the friend op man, Mondamin ! 



