Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten].

  • Edwin Lankester
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    each stalk is so exceedingly great as to counterbalance that disadvantage, and to render this equally productive with other of tlie culmiferous plants : it is to this circum- stance that its name, from mille, a thousand, has been ascribed. Of this sort there are two modifications, distinguished by the form of their spike, one being composed of a single rachis, while the other is very much branched. The dirt'ercnce of form tints exhibited is of so marked a character that it can scarcely be viewed as a modification brought about by difference of culture. Of each of these tiiere are to be found some species which chiefly exhibit tiieniselves as such by the varying colour of their grains, and by the circumstance of these being cither naked or encrusted. One kind of millet, the spike of which is compact, has been supposed to be a native of the north of Euroiie, and is commonly known, at least in this quarter of the globe, as German Miei.f.t (Setaria Germanica). It is thought, however, that this variety was originally im- ported from India and acclimatized in Germany. Nor docs it afford any direct evidence against this opinion that seeds apparently of the same kind, lirought from India, and subjected at once to the same culture, do not perfect their seeds ; since it is well known that the habits of plants may be changed by slow degrees to an extent quite sufficient to account for this variance. The stalk of this, and indeed of all the varieties of millet, re- sembles a jointed reed, having at every joint a long broad leaf embracing the stalk with its ba.'^e. 'I’his va- riety rises to the height of three or four feet, and termi- nates in a compact spike about eight or nine inches long, somewhat thicker at the base than at the top, beset with small round grains, which adhere but slightly to the husk, and therefore are very liable to be shaken out when ripe. 'I'he use ])rincipall3' made of this grain is the feeding of ])oidtry. Itai.ian jNIii.i.et (Sr/orin If(tltrn) bears a consider- able resemblance to the variety j\ist descril)ed. This variety is ilecidedly a native of India, where it bears the
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