CHAPTER XI.
THE CHEMISTRY OF VEGETABLE FOOD.
We come now to the vegetable kingdom, the principal points that we are to consider arranging themselves somewhat as follows:-- Farinaceous seeds, Oleaginous seeds, Leguminous seeds, Tubers and roots, Herbaceous articles, Fruits, Saccharine and farinaceous preparations.
Under the first head, that of farinaceous seeds, are included wheat, rye, oats, Indian corn, rice, and a variety of less-known grains, all possessing in greater or less degree the same constituents.

It will be impossible to more than touch upon many of them; and wheat must stand as the representative, being the best-known and most widely used of all grains.

Each one is made up of nitrogenous compounds, gluten, albumen, caseine, and fibrine, gluten being the most valuable.

Starch, dextrine, sugar, and cellulose are also found; fatty matter, which gives the characteristic odor of grain; mineral substances, as phosphates of lime and magnesia, salts of potash and soda, and silica, which we shall shortly mention again.
_Hard Wheat_, or that grown in hot climates and on fertile soil, has much more nitrogen than that of colder countries.

In hard wheat, in a hundred parts, twenty-two will be of nitrogen, fifty-nine starch, ten dextrine, &c, four cellulose, two and a half of fatty matter, and three of mineral, thus giving many of the constituents found in animal food.
This wheat is taken as bread, white or brown, biscuits, crackers, various preparations of the grain whether whole or crushed, and among the Italians as _macaroni_, the most condensed form of cereal food.