Useful Plants Of Japan - Described And Illustrated (Paperback, Illustrated Ed)

VOLUME I. The agricultural products included under this general name consist of the most indispensable articles of human food. These grains are used as our daily food or to brew sake rice-beer or sh5yE soy. The straw is used for the manufacture of various artides or to feed cattle. The young pods of beans and young shoots of buck-wheet, etc. are coilsurrled as culinary vegetables. 1. Oryza sativa, L.. aquatics, Comrnon or Paddy rice, Jap. I onzc, Uruchi an annual cereal grass c ultivated in paddy or marshy ground. There exist several kinds of rice, hut only three kinds are usually distinguished, early, middle, and late. The grains hulled, pounded, and boiled play an important role in the Ja1 anese alimentation as meal and porridge, or are used in the preparation of rice ferment, snke, aud vinegar. Dalz o d umpling, and senrbei a kincl of. cracknell are made from the flonr. The boiled rice dried malces what the Japanese call hoshiz and is eaten grilled. Stnrcli is also obtained from the rice, and the paste is madc by boiling thc flour. Resides these, rice hulls and straw scri-e for different uses especially the straw is used for paper rn tl ing and other manufactures. 2. Oryza montana, Lour., Upland rice, Jap. Ohabo an annual cereal of the order Gramincae, cultivated in o r d i n y dry land. In-o kinds csist, cornlnon and glutinous rice. The quality, shape, as well as use are like the paddy r c. I 3. Oryza glutinosa, Xz nph., Glutinous rice, Jap. Mnchigouze a kind of rice differing from 0. sativa, L., only in its colour and lack of lustre, and it is toughy and 21ighly elastic in the nature of the meal. The grains mixed with beans of Phaceolus radiata and steamed make what the Japanesecall kowa-meshi. Jfochi bread made by beating the meal in a morter, hoshii dried meal, knnxarashiko starch flour, cakes, and nnhe a kind of Turkish delight are made of this grain. The straw of this rice owing to its softness and easy manipulation is used to make ropes, mattings, straw hats, etc. 4. Hordeum vulgare, L., Barley, Jap. z 7 7 2 i a biennial graminous plant cultivclted in cornrnon dry-land. Lhe stalk attains a height of about 3 fts. This grain is only second to rice in importance and ussfulness. The grain pounded and palstly crushed are used chiefly to male porridge and meal, to brew sh6yU soy, etc. Parched barley is used to make barley-tea. . l1l1e malt of this grain is necessary to brew beer and to rnnke nnzr. Shi y-nzu gliit erally pearl barley, the grain hulled to a pure white is used to put in soup. The flour is baked into bread. The straw of this plant owing to its softness and high lustre is prepared to straw-mosaic. hats, and different articles. 5. Hordeum vulgare, L., forma mutica, Jap. BSirisu-nzzkg-i a subspecies of Tlordeum vulgztre of. the same quality and uses. Ihe difference is that this one has no awn or beard. 6. Hordeum vulgare, L., forma nudum, Naked I3arley, Jap. H dnKn-mztgi a subspecies of IIordeum vulgare. Its grains are easily separated frorn the hulls. 7. Triticum vulgare, L., wheat, Jap. K a biennial cereal, having several varieties cultivated in ol. diriary dry land. Its stallis grow to a height of about 3 fts. Tl egr ains are used to nalie 71ziso a kind of sauce in solid consistency and to brew shGyZ and vinegar. The wheat-mcal is used to mnlce bread, rtanjc a small calre other kinds of cakes. llacnroni, vermicelli, f z a kii13 oE food, shlfl6starch for paste are 211 mzde of this gmin. E I Atl cst raw oE this kind is rougll and only ussd to tl atch the roofs oE farm houses. Besides this there are two kinds of Chinese origin, one with reddish and the other 1vlt11 white straw used for hat making, the latter being dsemed superior. 8...