Millet.

Botanical name: 

Millium.

Also see: Millet - Panic.

A plant of the grass kind, large, upright, and not without its beauty. It is four feet high. The stalk is round, hollow, jointed, thick, and firm. The leaves are long and broad, of a pale green, and hairy. The flowers and seeds glow at the top of the stalk, in a vast cluster, so heavy that the head usually hangs down: they are altogether of the grass kind. The flowers are inconsiderable, and the seeds small, hard, and white.

The seeds are used sometimes in the manner of barley to make a drink, which is good in fevers, and against heat of urine; it is also a little astringent. The grain is eaten also as barley.


The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill.