SACRED BOTANY. — THE CEREALS. 
Millet is one of the ingredients of which the prophet Ezekiel was to compound his mixed or typical 
" bread," (Ezek., iv. 9), but is not elsewhere mentioned in the Bible. Millet is one of the smaller 
grains commonly cultivated in the East, and is chiefly the produce of Panicum miliaceum, a tall reed- 
like grass, bearing a large drooping panicle of small, smooth, oval seeds. Being so universally 
cultivated in the East, there seems little doubt of it being the plant mentioned by the prophet, though 
Holcus Sorghum, another large Millet-bearing grass, is preferred by some writers. 
Properly classed with the Cereals, are the " Tares " of the parable, by which, no doubt, is 
intended the Darnel or Lolium temulentum, a large-seeded grass occurring in cornfields, and producing 
deleterious grain. It will be recollected that, according to the parable, (Matt., xiii., 25). the husband- 
man " sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed Tares among the 
Wheat ; " and only " when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the 
Tares also." The Tares must therefore have been one of the family of grasses, or they would have 
been recognized as weeds at an earlier stage. This deleterious darnel has a name in Arabic, zawan 
or ziwan, much resembling that of zizanion, by which the "Tares" are mentioned in the passage 
quoted ; and we learn from Volney, that the peasants of Palestine and Syria do not always remove the 
seeds of weeds from their corn, and so sometimes leave the ziwan, which, when eaten, stuns people and 
makes them giddy. In our own country the most alarming results have sometimes ensued, from the 
seeds of the Darnel being carelessly ground up with the Wheat used for food. Dr. Kitto states that in 
certain parts of Syria, the plant is drawn up by hand at harvest-time, and then separated from the 
Wheat and bound in bundles — a fact which may be taken to corroborate the view that Darnel is 
intended, for the command was, " let both grow together till the harvest, and in time of harvest, I 
will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to bum." We 
conclude by citing some passages from a paper on the Scripture History of Cereals, by Dr. Manz, 
of Eslingen, read before the Royal Academy of Belgium, for which we are indebted to Professor 
Morren : — 
" The return of a hundred-fold which Isaac received from his sowing was, at that period, by no 
means extraordinary. We see this by the statements of old authors. Herodotus affirnis that the fruits 
of Ceres in Assyria amounted to two or three hundred times the quantity of seed sown. In respect to 
the fertility of soil, the suburbs of Alexandria, in Egypt, were still more remarkable, since the bread 
cereal par excellence (wheat) yielded five hundred and a thousand per cent. Millet is also cited 
because of its enormous productiveness ; and it was doubtless the ordinary aliment of the poor people 
in Arabia, as it is still in the suburbs of Tripoli. Russegger relates, that ' in lower Egypt there are 
twenty sorts of Cereals and leguminose plants, including all our Europeean Cereals, which succeed 
admirably, and produce, at least, a hundred per cent, of seed, from the circumstances under which their 
culture is pursued, being of the most favourable description.' It is somewhat singular that in the 
Bible we have no certain mention of two Cereals so common in our own day, namely, Oats and Rye. 
As for the Oat it was probably neglected, from the perfection to which the other Cereals were grown. 
It may, however, have been confounded with the grasses, without obtaining a special name ; and we 
should perhaps thus understand Oats, properly so called, as intended when grass for cattle is spoken of 
(Psalm, civ., 14) ; or they may be meant when grass as fodder is mentioned, (Psalm, cvi., 20) ; or, in 
short, grass that grew, en pasture, on the mountains ; since, according to all geographical botanists, 
Asia is certainly the native country of the Oat. 
" With regard to Rye, we find it cited in the Lutheran translation ; but it is not admitted by all, 
and no doubt the translation is questionable. Some commentators are of opinion that a sort of Wheat 
is meant here. Although we have not found from the scriptures that Rye existed in Palestine at 
so early a period, botanical travellers have mentioned this Cereal as being spontaneous in the country. 
Schubert says that the Cereals grow spontaneously, and in great quantity in many parts of the Holy 
Land, and especially in the Plain of Jesse, and on the heights of Galilee; they appear there as vestiges 
of old fields once cultivated, attesting still to the great fertility of ancient Palestine. Wheat and 
Barley arc thus found growing spontaneously, and amongst them our common Rye, which, according 
to the testimony of Russegger, should belong, like the other Cereals, to Egypt. 
"In general, no one disputes the fact that the native country of the Cereals of which bread is made 
is decidedly Asia. As Theoprastus informs us, Barley grew in a wild state on the mountains behind 
the Caspian sea (Western Asia) ; and Heinzchnann foimd corn in a spontaneous state in ' Bouschki- 
rie.' It may certainly be admitted that the Cereals, from whose seed bread may be made, have 
journeyed conjointly with the augmentation and emigration of the human race over the globe, and 
have thus arrived among ourselves." — M. 
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