FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
SETARIA ITALICA, BENGAL GRASS, ITALIAN MILLET, JAPANESE MILLET
Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
is a plant of the tropics and subtropics. This species is frequently cultivated in Italy and other warm countries. The seeds are found in the debris of the lake villages of Switzerland. This millet was introduced into France in 1815, where its cultivation as a forage plant has become considerably extended. In the United States, its seed ws distributed through the Patent Office in 1854, and its cultivation as a fodder crops has become quite extended.
This plant seems to have been known to the ancient Greeks as elumos and to the Romans as panicum. It is now gorwn in Italy as a fodder plant and for the grain to form polenta. This millet forms a valued crop in southern Europe as also in some parts of central Europe. it is not mentioned among American grasses by Flint, 1857, and is barely mentioned by Gould, 1870, except by description. It is mentioned as introduced from Europe and now spontaneous, by Gray, 1868, but millet, probably this species, is mentioned prior to 1844. In India, this millet is considered by the natives as one of the most delicious of cultivated grains and is held in high estimation by the Brahmans. At Mysore, three varieties are cultivated: bili, on watered land; kempa, in palm gardens, and mobu, in dry fields. In more western tracts, other varieties are grown.
