N. O. GRAMINEjE. 
1365 
purple ; pales 2, nearly equal, falling short of the glumes, lower 
3-neived, upper 2-nerved and with indexed margins ; lodicules 
fleshy, truncate ; stamens 3, protruded ; female spikelets nearly 
sessile, closely arranged in pairs on a thick spongy axis, forming 
a compact cylindrical spike surrounded at the base by broad 
imbricated bracts, upper flower of spikelet barren ; glumes 2, 
broad, thick and fleshy at the base, the lower emarginate, ciliate, 
the upper truncate ; pales 2, lower broad and blunt, the upper 
much longer, closely adhering to the ovary ; lodicules none ; 
ovary sessile, ovoid, styles very long, filiform, drooping. Fruit 
(the grain) roundish or reniform, compressed, smooth, shining, 
yellow, white, red or spotted. (Duthie.) 
Uses : — It is considered by Mahometan physicians to be 
resolvent, astringent, and very nourishing ; they consider it to be 
a suitable diet in consumption and a relaxed condition of the 
bowels. In Europe it is much used as a valuable article of 
diet for invalids and children under the names of Polenta 
(Maize meal) and Maizena (Maize flour). In Greece the silky 
stigmata are used in decoction in diseases of the bladder, and 
have lately attracted attention in America under the name of 
Corn silk, of which a liquid extract is sold in the shops as a 
remedy in irritable conditions of the bladder with turbid and 
irritating urine ; it has a marked diuretic action The meal 
Has been long in use in America as a poultice, and gruel is 
also made of it. In the Concan an alkaline solution is prepared 
from the burnt cobs and is given in lithiasis. 
In the United States for starch manufacture from maize it 
has been found desirable to get rid of the oily embryo— this 
is done by machinery. The embryo is too rich for feeding 
stock unless the oil is removed — this is done in the hydraulic 
press, and the cake when ground into meal is very valuable 
as a food for stock. The oil promises to be useful for medicinal 
purposes instead of olive oil. 
Chemical composition .— The average results of the analysis of three varie- 
ties of maize in an updried state by Poison, yielded in 100 parts, 54-37 starch, 
8'83 nitrogenous substance, 1-50 fat, 2*70 gum and sugar, 15'77 cellulose, 12'16 
water, and 1-67 ash. Poggiale found on an average in 160 parts of the dried 
grain, 64*5 starch, 6*7 fat, and 9*9 nitrogenous substance. Church found it to 
