[1287] It cannot however be denied that some indigenous grasses might
be brought by culture, perhaps, to produce mealy seeds that could be
used as food. It is at any rate certain that some grasses, for example,
the slender-spiked cock’s-foot panic-grass, _Panicum sanguinale_, which
we have rooted out from many of our gardens, was once cultivated as
corn, and is still sown in some places, but has been abandoned for more
beneficial kinds.
[1288] “If the learned would lay aside disputing, and give place to
truth, they would be convinced, both by the sight and the taste, that
this plant (buck-wheat) is the _ocimum_ of the ancients.”--Kreuterbuch,
Augsburg, 1546, fol. p. 248.
[1289] Theophrast. l. vii. c. 3.
[1290] Dioscor. l. ii. c. 171.
[1291] Geopon. l. ix. c. 28.
[1292] Varro, lib. i. cap. 31. That a kind of meslin is here to be
understood, has been supposed by Stephanus, in his Prædium Rusticum,
p. 493; and Matthiolus is of the same opinion. See Matthioli Opera,
p. 408. Buck-wheat may have been employed green as fodder; and it is
indeed often sown for that use; but there are many other plants which
can be employed for the like purpose.
[1293] Dioscorid. l. ii. c. 188.
[1294] Theophrast. p. 941.
[1295] Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 10. He says in the same place, and also
p. 291, that the _erysimum_ was by the Latins called also _irio_; and
hence it is that Ruellius and other old botanists give that name to
buck-wheat.
[1296] The first edition was published in octavo, at Lyons, in 1560.
Two editions I have now before me; the first is called Dipnosophia seu
Sitologia, Francofurti, 1606, 8vo. The other Joan. Bruyerini Cibus
Medicus, Norimbergæ, 1659, 8vo. The author was a grandson of Symphorien
Champier, whose works are mentioned in Haller’s Biblioth. Botan. i. p.
246.
[1297] De Natura Stirpium, Basiliæ, 1543, fol. p. 324.
[1298] Rei Rusticæ Libri Quatuor. Spiræ Nemetum, 1595, 8vo, p. 120. He
calls it triticum faginum, φαγόπυρον, or nigrum triticum, buck-wheat.
[1299] Le Grand d’Aussy quotes from this book in his Histoire de la
Vie Privee des François, i. p. 106, the following words: “Sans ce
grain, qui nous est venu depuis soixante ans, les pauvres gens auraient
beaucoup à suffrir.”
[1300] M. Schookii Liber de Cervisia. Groningæ, 1661, 12mo.
[1301] Lobelii Stirpium Adversaria. Antv. 1576, fol. p. 395.--Bauhini
Hist. Plant. ii. p. 993.--Chabræi Stirpium Sciagraphia. Gen. 1666, fol.
p. 312, and in App. p. 627.--C. Bauhini Theatr. Bot. p. 530.
[1302] The beech-tree in German is called _Buche_ or _Buke_, in Danish
_Bög_, and in Swedish, Russian, Polish, and Bohemian, _Buk_.
[1303] Wörterbuch, p. 434. This derivation may be found also in
Martinii Lexicon, art. Fagopyrum.
[1304] Buck-wheat is sometimes named by botanists _frumentum ethnicum_
(heathen-corn), and _triticum Saracenicum_, because some have supposed
that it was introduced into Europe from Africa by the Saracens.
[1305] A particular description of this scarce bible may be found in J.
H. a Seelen’s Selecta Litteraria, Lubecæ, 1726, 8vo, p. 398, 409.
[1306] This small work is entitled Vocabula Rei Nummariæ, &c. Additæ
sunt Appellationes Quadrupedum, et Frugum, a Paulo Ebero et Casp.
Peucero. Witebergæ, 1552, 8vo.
[1307] Dictionarium Latino-Germanicum. Argentorati, 4to.
[1308] Nya Swenska Economiska Dict. Stockh. 1780, 8vo, vol. ii.
[1309] Abhandlungen der Schwedisch. Akad. der Wissenschaften, vi. p.
107, where is given, as far as I know, the first figure of it.
[1310] Stirpes Rariores Imperii Russici, 1739, 4to.
[1311] Ehrhart’s Œkonomische Pflanzen Historie, viii. p. 72.
[1312] Ruellius De Natura Stirp. lib. ii. cap. 27. Some very improperly
have considered this plant as Turkish wheat.
[1313] Several species of this genus were cultivated in the southern
districts. Their distinguishing characteristics do not however appear
as yet to be fully established. Bauhin makes the proper _sorghum_ to be
different from the _durra_ of the Arabs. Linnæus in his last writings
has separated _Holcus bicolor_ from _sorghum_. Forskal thus describes
the _durra_: “Holcus panicula ovata; spiculis sessilibus, subvillosis;
alternatim appendiculatis; flosculo uno vel duobus vacuis, sessilibus.”
There are kinds of it with white and reddish-yellow (_fulva_) seeds.
According to his account, however, the Arabs cultivate another kind
known under the name of _dochna_, though in less quantity, chiefly as
food for fowls.
[1314] Lib. xviii. cap. 7. _Holcus sorghum_ is sold at Venice for
brooms, as we are told by Ray in his Hist. Plant.
[1315] Herodot. lib. i. cap. 193.
[1316] Beschreibung der Reyss Leonhardi Rauwolfen. Frankf. 1582, 4to,
ii. p. 68. The author observes that this kind of millet is mentioned
also by Rhases and Serapion.
[1317] Philostrat. Vita Apollon. lib. iii. cap. 2.
[1318] Melica cioe saggina e conosciuta, et e di due manere, una rossa
et una bianca, e trovasene una terza manera che a più bianca che
l’miglio. Crescentio D’Agricoltura. In Venetia, 1542, 8vo, lib. iii.
cap. 17. It appears therefore that in our dictionaries _saggina_ ought
not to be explained by Turkish wheat alone.
[1319] Andrea, Briefe aus der Schweitz. Zurich, 1776, 4to, p. 182.
[1320] Adanson, Voyage au Senegal.