42 POPULAR ERRORS. 



Botanists themselves are not without responsibil- 

 ity for the existence of the belief in transmutation. 

 The serious discussion concerning the origin of the 

 cultivated oat from some of the known wild speoies 

 might have led to the common belief (though it 

 probably did not do so) among certain European 

 peasantry that the wild oat, Avena fatua, is either 

 the parent of the cultivated oat, or a degenerated 

 form of it. The long and learned discussions con- 

 cerning the possible origin of wheat from another 

 well known wild grass, JEyilops ovata, probably 

 tended to keep alive other beliefs in the transfor- 

 mation of one kind of grain into another. It seems 

 that an intermediate form is found, in the vicinity 

 of wheat fields, between the common wheat and 

 this wild grass, which is wholly distinct from, 

 though closely related to, wheat. For a long time 

 this intermediate form was taken to indicate either 

 that the wild grass was becoming converted into 

 wheat, or that the wheat was degenerating into a 

 wild state; in either case it was considered as evi- 

 dence that the -ZEgilops was the original plant from 

 which our cultivated wheats were derived. Further 

 observation, however, has convinced botanists that 

 this intermediate form, which has been named 

 JEgilops triticoides, is neither wheat nor ^Egilops, 

 but a natural hybrid between the two. It is never 

 found except on the borders of wheat fields, and it 



