12 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
By Professor James Buckman, E.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 
( Continued from vol. xliii^ jo. 914.) 
Rye — Secale cereale — though still used for bread in some 
parts of the Continent, has little claim as a cereal grass for 
the method of its employment in this country, as, though its 
seed is not unfrequently grown with us, yet rye-grain is not 
used in England either as a bread-stuff or as cattle-corn, but 
is sown principally with a view of obtaining an early bite 
of green food for sheep, which by its means we are enabled 
to do in early spring before even the Trifolium incarnatum 
(carnation clover) is ready. When seeded, its tall culms are 
made use of for thatching, as they make very good reed; 
the yield of grain is sometimes abundant in such seasons 
as the past ; and rye consequently was a paying crop from the 
value both of the seed and the straw, the more so as the grain 
was extensively sown to make up the deficiencyin the root crop. 
Among the foreign cereal grasses we may mention Rice, 
which is much used with our poultry stock, and is even 
esteemed for our home chicks. 
There is no doubt but that rice would be a valuable food 
for our poorer people if it could be got at the cheap rate at 
which it is obtained by the millions who use it in the East. 
But if we consider that it takes 4 lbs. 13 oz. of rice to 
equal the nutritive power of 2 lbs. 1 oz. of wheat, and that 
its average cost is Is. 2 d. as opposed to 4 \d., the price for an 
equivalent of wheat, we can understand how it is that rice 
has never been popular with the poor, who say that it is 
“ watery and has no proof in it.” Viewed, then, as a diluent 
of the rich man’s food, it may be considered wholesome and 
beneficial, but it can hardly be looked upon as a staying or 
working man’s diet. 
The different sorghums or millet-grasses yield valuable 
seeds, which are used in the East for food for man and the 
lower animals, but they are of little value with us on account 
of their price. The stems of some of the species of these 
yield sugar, and as the Sorghum sac char atum is said to be 
sufficiently hardy to stand our climate, it was recommended 
to be sown for cattle-food as a soiling plant. 
Our experiments upon this grass carried out as long ago 
as 1859-60, were so curious that we cannot forbear quoting 
from our Report to the British Association, for 1859 and 1860. 
