CANARY-SEED. See PHALARIS, Encycl.—Professor Beckmann doubts whether the plant which bears the canary-seed be the phalaris of the ancients, because that name seems to have been given by Pliny to more than one species of grass. He thinks it very probable, however, that the plant which the modern botanists call phalaris was first brought from the Canary Islands to Spain, where it began to be cultivated, as well as in the south of France, as soon as canary-birds came into general esteem. At present it is cultivated in various places, and forms no inconsiderable branch of trade, particularly in the island of Sicily, where it is called Scogliola or Scagliola. Were it not that the grains are not easily freed from the husks, this plant might be cultivated for the food of man, for its seeds yield a good kind of meal. The phalaris has by several writers been confounded with argol or the lichen roscolla of Linnaeus; but they are very different plants. See LICHEN ROSCOLLA in this Supplement.