Some writers place _Panic Grass_ among the wheats, because certain nations made bread of it.[V-24] The higher classes of Rome and Athens always resisted this bad taste. They preferred spelt, or red wheat, a super-excellent grain,[V-25] which was much honoured by the Latins, if we can credit the charming letter, written by Pliny the younger, to Septilius Clarus, on the occasion of a dinner, where the latter failed to join the guests. Among other delicate dishes with which he desired to treat his friend, he had ordered a spelt cake to be made.[V-26] This same flour was the base of the Carthaginian pudding; which the reader may taste if he will, here is the recipe:-- CARTHAGINIAN PUDDING.--Put a pound of red wheat flour into water; when it has soaked some time, place it in a wooden bowl, add three pounds of cream cheese, half a pound of honey, and one egg; beat this mixture well together, and cook it on a slow fire in a stewpan.[V-27] Should this dish not be sufficiently delicate, try the following:-- When you have sifted some spelt flour, put it in a wooden vessel, with some water, which you must renew twice a day for ten days. At the end of that time squeeze out all the water, and place the paste in another vessel; reduce it to the consistence of thick lees, pass it through a piece of new linen, and repeat this last operation; dry it in the sun, and then boil it in milk.[V-28] As regards the exact seasoning of this exquisite Roman dish, it is your own genius which must inspire you with the proportions. Let us not omit to notice the _Erupmon_ of the Greeks, the _Irion_ of the Latins, the _Indian Wheat_ of the moderns. This plant produces a wholesome and easily digestible food; it was well known in Italy in the time of Pliny,[V-29] at which period the peasants used to make a crisp sort of heavy bread, probably somewhat similar to that which is still used in the south of France. Since the famine of 1847 great attention has been paid to this flour; much was imported into England from America, where it is used in domestic economy; when green, its milky pulp is an excellent food: the various advantages of this flour, however, are not sufficiently developed to give all the benefit of its goodness to the world; habit and prejudice assist materially to prevent its being generally employed. The Romans also ate it as hasty-pudding, parched or roasted, with a little salt. A writer equally remarkable for his elegant and easy style, as well as for the justness of his observations, informs us that, in our days, the Indian inhabitants of the unfruitful plains of Marwar never dress Indian corn in any other way.[V-30]