DOES WHEAT TUEN TO CHESS? 45 



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Wheat and chess belong, not only to different 

 species, but to distinct genera. The differences 

 between them are structurally as great as those 

 between a sheep and a horse. The difference in 

 the form and arrangement of the head of the two 

 plants can be observed by any one. The micro- 

 scopic differences are even greater. The cells of the 

 glumes or chaff of chess are oblique, those of wheat 

 generally right angled. In wheat only one vein of 

 the upper glume is bordered with stomata or breath- 

 ing pores, in chess every vein. In wheat the grain 

 in most varieties separates readily from the chaff, 

 in chess it remains enclosed by the two inner chaffs, 

 the same as in oats. 



Chess is a well known wild plant in the Old 

 World; wheat has never been found wild, and 

 probably disappeared in the wild state soon after 

 its introduction into cultivation. There are many 

 species of Bromus, the natural genus to which chess 

 belongs. Twelve of these are natives in the United 

 States, besides five varieties ; and twelve more species, 

 like chess, have been introduced from the Old 

 World. Most of these are weeds, but at least one 

 (Bromus unioloides), called Rescue Grass, is a 

 valuable winter pasture in the Southern States. 

 About the year 1855, chess itself was widely her- 

 alded in the agricultural press, under the name of 

 Willard's Brome Grass, as a new and valuable grass 



