Feb. 1907.1 



EDIBLE PRODUCTS. 



Dry Grains in Ceylon. IV, 



By J. F. Jowitt. 

 Zea Mays L. Muttu Cholam. T. Muttu = Pearl, Cliolam see below. Bada 

 Irungu S. Bada = belly, alluding to the " Cob " being enclosed in spatbaceous leaves— 

 Irungu= Wheat. 



Classed by natives with Andropogon Sorghum, owing to the general growth 

 of the two species being similar, though the inflorescence is very different— Mr. 

 Herbert Wright has written fully about this species in Vol. Ill No. 5 Circular and 

 Agricultiiral Journal of the R- B. G., Ceylon. 



Andropogon Sorghum, Brot., Sorghum Vulgar e, Pers., Holcus Sorghum, 

 Linn., Arisi Cholam. T. Karat Irungu S. Kaka or Karum Cholam, T. Kalu 

 Irungu S. Shada, T. are all varieties of one and the same species A Sorghum, 

 Brot. known also as the Indian or Great Millet ; Guinea Corn ; Turkish Millet ; 

 Sorgho ; Imphee ; Kaffir Corn ; Congo Millet ; Jerusalem Corn ; Broom ; Milo 

 Maize ; etc., it is the Juar of India, and each variety has a special vernacular name. 



Sir George Watt, on the authority of Sir Walter Elliot whom he characterises 

 as a " botauist and linguist of no mean order " says, "the Tamil for the plant, Cholam 

 was in all probability derived from the fact that it was the chief grain of the Chula 

 country," mentioned by Mr. P. Arunachalam in Sketches of Ceylon History as being 

 in South India. 



Arisi = rice; though "arisi is a generic Tamil word applied to the cleaned 

 grain of any cereal when ready for consumption." *It appears to be used in Ceylon 

 as the specific name of a variety with very loose, nodding panicles. 



Irungu seems to have been a name of purely Tamil use in early times. "It 

 is now used in a restricted sense for a particular group of varieties which are 

 characterised by a very lax inflorescence, and by the grain being almost entirely 

 covered by the closely adhering glumes."* I am told that Irungu signifies wheat 

 Karal = panicle or spike of grass Kaka, T. = crow-like, referring to the colour of the 

 grain, Karum, T. Kalu, S. = Black. Shada, T. this name was given me by one of my 

 coolies as the name of a variety with a very compact head, which I have since identi- 

 fied as Sen (red) Cholam, from Salem. 



Shada literally is applied to the matted locks on the head of a cooly who is 

 under a vow and has dedicated his hair to some god ; it is an instance of the same 

 variety being known by natives under different names. Very little reliance can be 

 placed on the native names for grasses, is my experience, the same name being- 

 applied to different species in different localities. 



Andropogon Sorghum Brot. is accepted by most botanists as a cultivated 

 form of A Halepensis Brot. which I have myself collected in a wild state in Uva. 



In connection with this wild form, Mr. I. H. Burkili (Reporter on Economic 

 Products in India), wrote in 1902. " Its flowers are arranged in a very loose 

 inflorescence and the little grains are soon lost at ripeness, bv the breaking of tiie 

 flower stalk below them. To cultivate and select till the stalk became firm, to make 

 the grains larger and larger, and to mass them into a solid head, have been the 

 objects of generations of cultivators and have been attained : — in the ease of the first 

 object, so that no cultivated,/ uars drop their seed by the breaking of the flower 

 stalk ; in the case of the second, so that the largest grains seen from India are l inch 

 long and 3/10 inch broad ; and in the case of the third object so that the best 

 varieties carry the flowers densely packed, and produce a club-shaped head of seed, 

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