Millet

Millet, a grain, of which there are several kinds, the produce of species of Panicum, Setaria, and allied genera. The genus Panicum contains many species, natives of tropical and warm temperate countries, and some of which, as Guinea Grass (q.v.), are amongst the largest fodder grasses. The flowers are in spikes, racemes, or panicles; the glumes very unequal, one of them often very minute; each spikelet containing two florets, one of which is often barren. The genus Setaria has a spike-like panicle, with two or more bristles under the glumes of each spikelet.—Common Millet (Panicum miliaceum) is an annual grass, three or four feet high, remarkably covered with long hairs, which stand out at right angles. It has a much-branched nodding panicle; the spikelets are oval, and contain only one seed. It is a native of the East Indies, but is extensively cultivated in the warmer parts of Europe and other quarters of the world. The grain, which is very nutritious, is only about one-eighth of an inch in length. It is used in the form of groats, or in flour mixed with wheat-flour, which makes a good kind of bread; but bread made of millet alone is brittle and full of cracks. Poultry are extremely fond of millet.—Other species, P. miliare, P. frumentaceum, and P. pilosum, are cultivated in different parts of India, chiefly on light and rather dry soils, yielding very abundant crops. Millet of various species is the staple food-grain of India as a whole, and not rice, as is often thought.—German Millet, or Mohar (Setaria ger- manica), and Italian Millet (S. italica)—regarded by many as varieties of one species, and probably originally from the East, although now naturalised in the south of Europe—are cultivated in many of the warmer parts of Europe, in India, and other countries. Italian millet is three or four feet in height; German millet is much lower, and its spike comparatively short, compact, and erect; it is less valuable as a corn-plant. The grains of both are very small, only about half as long as that of Common Millet; but they are extremely prolific, one root producing many stalks, and one spike of Italian millet often yielding two ounces of grain. The produce is estimated as five times that of wheat. The grain of these millets is im- ported into Britain for feeding cage-birds. It is used for soup in the south of Europe. To the same tribe of grasses belong the genera Paspalum, Pennisetum, Penicillaria, Digitaria, and Milium. Paspalum exile is common in Africa; and P. scrobiculatum is cultivated on poor soils in India. Penicillaria spicata or Pennisetum typhoideum, often called Egyptian Millet and Guinea Corn, is cultivated in Africa and India, and the south of Europe.—Pennisetum distichum causes much inconvenience to the traveller in Central Africa, the little bristles which are attached to its seeds making them stick to the clothes and pierce the skin.—Digitaria sanguinalis, or Polish Millet, is cultivated in Poland, where the grain is used like rice. It is a common grass in tropical and warm countries, and in many parts of Europe; in Britain it occurs in the south of England, where it is probably only an introduced weed of cultivation. The spikes in this genus are compound, and from their appearance give it the names Digitaria and Finger-grass.—The Millet Grass (Milium effusum) of Britain, occasionally found in shady woods, is a very beautiful grass, three or four feet high, with a spreading pale panicle of small flowers. Another species of the same genus (M. nigricans) is the Maize de Guinée of Peru, where its seeds are converted into a very white flour.—The name Indian Millet is sometimes given to Durra (q.v.).