170 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
the plains. In Roxburgh’s Flora Indica, Vol. i., p. 348 
(1832), a species is recorded under the name Eleusine 
stricta, which is regarded by more modern botanists as a 
luxuriant variety of H. coracana. For this latter form 
Roxburgh gives ‘‘an increase equal to 120 fold, and for 
another, 500; whilst on two tufts, the produce of one seed, 
grew 50 stems, and no less than 8,100 fold seeds were care- 
fully calculated to be the produce of this plant. Generally 
this grain is sold at the rate of 80 to 130 lbs. a rupee. 
It is considered by natives to be the most nourishing 
and invigorating of cheap food. On analysis, Natchnee 
grain has been found to contain on an average 6.53 per 
cent. of nitrogenous matter. In this respeot, ‘‘Natchnee’’ 
stands last among the cereals of India. Dr. Forbes Wat- 
son thinks that want of nitrogen is more than compen- 
sated by the mineral constituents of ‘‘Raggi’’? (Natchnee). 
It is rich in iron, required for the blood corpuscles, and 
in potash, lime, and phosphoric acid, essential to various 
tissues of the body. On the whole, ‘‘Natchnee’’ stands 
high in food value. The proportion of phosphoric acid 
in the grain is about 0.4 per cent. In addition to the 
above statement, J. C. Lisboa reports that ‘‘it is exten- 
sively used by the poorer classes in several districts of 
N. India, and in Mysore, and other parts of S. India it 
is the staple food; sometimes stored in pits, where it keeps 
without being deteriorated for years.’’ ‘‘Natchnee’’ is 
eaten in the form of cakes made of the flour, mixed with a 
sufficient quantity of water and sugar, and baked. 
The flour is also used by being stirred with water, 
then boiled and formed into a sort of thick porridge, 
named “‘ambil,’”’ in Goa and in South India. Well-to-do 
people make a sort of pudding, which they call ‘‘tisana.’’ 
It is said that in Darjiling a fermented liquor is pre- 
pared from the ‘‘Natchnee’’ grain. The stalks are given 
to cattle as fodder, or used as fuel. 
With regard to EHleusine stricta, which is regarded by 
Roxburgh as a distinct species from ZH. coracana, he states 
that it is still more cultivated than the latter, and differs 
from it only in having the spikes straight, being generally 
of a larger size, and more productive. The great weight 
of seed, when full-grown, bends the spikes down into a 
horizontal direction. Roxburgh mentions three sorts of FH. 
stricta, and states, in connection with one of these, that 
