48 POPULAR ERRORS. 



igan Horticultural Society, 1 and referred to a com- 

 mittee consisting of two professors, and a gentle- 

 man who is now editor of an agricultural paper. 

 After careful examination, it was discovered that a 

 spikelet of chess had been caught between some of 

 the chaffs of the head of wheat and held in such 

 position as to appear as if it grew there. The 

 broken end of the stalk of the chess spikelet was 

 discovered, however, and the head of wheat was 

 found to be entire. Another similar case was sent 

 from Indiana to the Academy of Sciences at Phila- 

 delphia. It was some time before this case could 

 be explained, but the chairman of the committee to 

 which it was referred 2 finally discovered that a 

 spikelet of the wheat head had been artificially 

 removed, and a spikelet of chess substituted and 

 secured in place by some kind of cement. It was 

 afterward learned that the one who sent the speci- 

 men had practiced the same trick upon others. 



A partial explanation may perhaps be offered to 

 account for the wide-spread belief that wheat will 

 turn to chess. It will be noticed that most of the 

 causes which are given for this supposed transfor- 

 mation are cases in which the wheat is injured in 

 some way, winter-killing being the most common 

 cause assigned. Now chess is a biennial, the same 



iSee Report, 1884, p. 187. 



2Proc., Philadelphia Academy, 1874, p. 163- 



