Feb. 1907.] 



71 



Edible Products. 



Arisi Cholam, panicle very loose, bent over, drooping, pedicles 1-2 J inch 

 long ; very hairy at base of spikelets, glumes gaping when ripe, but subequal or 

 if anything longer than ripe seed ; grain globular, ovate, pearly white, with large 

 oval bordered embryo, glume IV short awned. This is probably what is known in 

 Trichinopoly as Pal or Veil irungu. 



Karal irungu, from tea maker's garden, Craig, (4,500 feet) panicle pyramidal, 

 loose, erect, pedicels long ; glume I of sessile spikelet, broad ovate, yellow or later 

 reddish, with green marginal veins at its acute tip, very hairy, especially on 

 margins which overlap glume II. Glume II lanceolate, acuminate, smooth, 3 

 veined at apex with connecting veins between the longitudinal ones, III hyaline, 

 ciliate, IV ovate, ciliate, with short bent awn, lodicules ciliate ; grain white. 

 This is closely allied to Arisi Cholam but not identical, they both are very little 

 removed from the wild representative. 



I am told that a variety cultivated under the same name in Udu Nuwara 

 has a much larger white grain. 



Sen Cholam panicle very compact, oblong ovate, 4x2| inches flattened at 

 the top. Seed orange red, oval, when ripe the glumes do not reach higher than 

 half away up the grain, and at this point there is a horizontal line evidently due 

 to cleavage by the ripening grain, the glumes being often split above, veins 

 prominent in lower half, Burkill's mediocris sub var Ruber ? 



Uses. Boiled and eaten as Conjee, Tamils make it into flour and boil until 

 it becomes a thick paste, known as " Chola Hale or Cool " amongst the Sinhalese 

 Karal Irungu is roasted until the grain bursts and swells, becoming soft and floury, 

 it is mixed with honey and eaten as a sweet, known in Seven Korles and Low 

 Country as " Kordiyal " ; it is also given to invalids being considered easy of 

 digestion. It is also made up in a similar way as above but with jaggery and pepper 

 and given by chiefs and headmen to their employes as tiffin, known in Udu Nuwara 

 and Four Korles as " Pore-Aggala." In Ceylon the flour does not seem to be made 

 into bread but in India many varieties are used for this purpose. Bread made from 

 the yellow grain is regarded as the best, that made from the white being hard and 

 tasteless. Other forms of which there are twelve are not allowed to mature but 

 are baked in hot ashes and eaten green, when the grain is tender and in the ear. 



Other uses. Many varieties have sugar-yielding stems and it is a curious 

 fact that a sugar-yielding form may, when carried from one country to another, 

 become a grain or fodder form. The thicker and drier stems are used as fuel, in 

 Southern Europe and America a special form of the plant known to botanists as 

 Var. Technicus is specially grown in order that (after the removal of the grain) 

 the rigid, strong, much branched fruiting shoots may be employed as natural 

 brooms, and special qualities for small hand brushes or Whisks, Hackel writes, 

 from the fruit the Caffirs make " Tialva " and the Negroes " Merisa " alcholic drinks. 

 The fruiting glumes contain useful coloring matters. 



As Fodder. Many of the varieties are cultivated in India exclusively for 

 fodder in which case they will as a rule be sown out of the season appropriate to 

 their growth as a grain crop, with a view to preventing the seed maturing. 



It is held in such esteem that there is a proverb current in the Tcimil country 

 " Shola payer mayentha nadukku Shorka lokam vanduma. Does a bullock which 

 has grazed on a cholam crop wish for Heaven? As far as lean learn this grass 

 is never grown for fodder in Ceylon and the variety Kaka Cholam is censidered 

 poisonous and is said to be sowed amongst othei cereals as a warning and a deterrent 

 to owners of straying cattle, 



