eg 
W 
SACKED BOTANY. — THE CEREALS. 135 
adnate, stipes covered with narrow scales. Sterile frond glabrous, pinnate, one to two and a half feet long, 
bright green, and shining ; pinna; large, rather membranous, oblong-acuminate, undulated, lower ones petiolate, 
and roundish at the base, upper ones adnate-decurrent. Stipes scaly near the base. Both forms are lateral, 
adherent to a creeping rhizome. 
2. G. decurrens, J. Smith (Leptochilus decurrens, Bhime). — A singular evergreen stove fern, from Ceylon. 
Sterile frond simple, glabrous, a foot long, lanceolate-acuminate, attenuated at the base, pale green, and slightly 
undidated. Fertile frond simple, slender, linear, very narrow, one to two feet long, and one eighth of an inch 
broad ; stipes one half the length of the frond. Sori linear, continuous, forming a row on each marr/ ; n. Both 
forms are lateral, articulated, on a slender creeping rhizome. 
Intnil fMimtf — iEJje Cmnls. 
KHHE Cereals are of earlier origin than man himself, as we learn from the recital of the six days' 
A work of creation. Those which are mentioned in the Bible, as far as they can be ascertained, 
arc Wheat, Barley, and Millet, and to which we ought to add the " Tares " of the parable. Oats and 
probably Rye were unknown to the Hebrews ; and the supposed reference to Rice is open to much doubt. 
Ulteat, by far the most important of these grains, is mentioned in passages too numerous to cite. It 
is given in our version as the translation of the Hebrew chittah, and much learned argument has been 
elicited, to prove that this is a correct translation. It has been thought by some, that the word 
" corn," in our version, should be also taken to mean " Wheat," but this seems a forced conclusion, 
for even though bread-corn be in all cases implied, it is certain that barley bread was made use of 
almost as far back as the patriarchal age. The ancients cultivated different kinds of Wheat, and we 
have no certain means of identifying that referred to in the scriptures. Varieties of the common 
Wheat, Triticum testivum and hibernum, have been cultivated in Syria, and the T. eompositum, in 
Egypt ; the latter, commonly called seven-eared Wheat, is supposed, with good reason, to be the plant 
indicated in the dream of the Egyptian king : " I saw, and behold seven ears came up hi one stalk, 
full and good." (Gen., xli. 22). The earliest distinct mention of Wheat occurs hi the days of the 
patriarch Jacob : " Reuben went in the days of Wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field." 
(Gen., xxs., 14). It is not, however, improbable, that it is implied among " the fruits of the ground " 
brought as an offering by Cain, (Gen., iv. 3) ; and still more probably, in the case of Isaac, who 
" sowed" in the land of Gerar, and " received in the same year a hundred-fold," (Gen., xxvi. 12). 
Rye is mentioned in our version on the occasion of the plague of hail in Egypt, when, though the 
Flax and the Barley were smitten, the Wheat and " Rie " escaped. The word translated Rie, is 
kussemeth, which is elsewhere rendered " fitches," (sec Exod., ix., 32 ; Isaiah, xxviii., 2.3 ; Ezek., iv. 
9). What it signifies is doubtful, but that it was a cultivated grain, and an article of diet, are obvious 
from the passages just referred to. It docs not appear to be Rye, which is a grain of cold countries, 
and not cultivated even in the South of Europe. The most probable suggestion is that it means Spelt 
or Spelt wheat, Triticum spclta, a species in many respects resembling our common Wheats, and long 
thought, though apparently without good foundation, to have been the original stock from whence 
they sprang. The " fitches " of the passage in Isaiah (ketzach, kesach, or ketsah), are most probably 
the Black-seed, or Nigclla sativa, a black aromatic seed, daily employed as a condiment in the Fast. 
Baric;/ is very early mentioned as being grown in Egypt, the Flax and the " Barley," which latter, 
"was in the car," being smitten by the plague of hail, (Exod.,ix. 31). Frequent allusion is subsequently 
made to it as being cultivated and used in Palestine, and it is sometimes expressly spoken of as fodder ; 
\\ hich latter, indeed, is still its chief use in Western Asia. We first read of bread made of Barlo\ in 
the days of the Judges, (eh. vii., 13), when a loaf of Barley bread formed an ominous feature in the 
dream of a soldier of the Midianitish host. Many centuries later a few " Barley loaves " were 
miraculously made to feed a great multitude, and elicited from His lips, "who spake as never man 
spake," the golden advice: "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." (John.vi. 12 . 
The prophet Isaiah makes use of a figure which has been supposed to refer to the culture of Rice : 
" Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ;i-~.' 
(Isaiah, xxxii. 20); and the wise man's expression. ■• Cast thy bread upon the waters." , F.cclcs. \i . 1 . 
has been supposed to bear a similar meaning. Dr. Royle, however, thinks it « xcecilingh prec aliens lo 
build so important a conclusion, as that Rice had been so early introduced into the l.i vant, upon such 
slight indications; the more especially as it now appears that Barley is in some parts subjected to the 
same process of submersion as Rice, as Major Skinner particularly observed near Damascus. In 
5) Palestine two crops of Barley were generally sown, one in the autumn, in which case the harve t was <* 
c ml ready about the l'assover, — and the other early in spring. (. p 
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