A GRAIN OF WHEAT 35 



matter from an evolutionary standpoint, according to which related 

 races, varieties and species had a common origin, we can arrive logically 

 at but one conclusion, namely, that the most ancient wheats were those 

 with a fragile rachis. One arrives at the same conclusion on com- 

 paring the cultivated barley, having an articulated rachis, with the wild 

 barley which has a fragile rachis. 



The well-preserved emmer glumes in this bottle which I am going 

 to have passed around were found at Abusir in the tomb of the king 

 Newoser-re (Dyn. v. 2400 B.C.). This material was very kindly sent 

 me by the Oriental Society of Berlin. 



If, on the other hand, we look to Europe and Asia to see in which 

 countries these ancient cereals are still cultivated, we shall find them 

 in the northern Jura, in the countries of the Basques, the Servians, 

 the Swabians and the Bactrians of Persia. "We see that these cereals 

 have maintained themselves only in mountainous countries or among 

 the peoples most remote from the centers of civilization. The culti- 

 vation of emmer has long since disappeared from the fertile plains of 

 Egypt, where it was superseded by that of hard wheat. 



Knowing, therefore, that the wheats cultivated in most ancient 

 times were those with a fragile rachis, we are confronted by a second 

 question : Where is the home of this type of wheat ? In what country 

 did our first parents, our prehistoric ancestors, find this plant, most 

 precious of all plants? 



As for the einkorn, we know its home since the botanist Balansa 

 found it in Asia Minor. It is true that Balansa's wild plant differs 

 from the cultivated einkorn in certain characters and it has been named 

 Triticum monococcum, var. cegilipoides. But it has already been noted 

 that this species is too distinct from wheats to allow it to be considered 

 as their prototype. 



For more than a century botanists and historians of civilization 

 have sought for the home of wheat. In vain have all the resources of 

 comparative morphology been employed, as well as those of history and 

 philology. The origin of wheat remains shrouded in mystery. The 

 ancients attributed its introduction into the world of men to some 

 beneficent goddess, thus putting the mystery of its first cultivation 

 back of all written history. 



A botanist of great merit, Count Solms Laubach, weary of this dis- 

 cussion, finally advocated the idea that the wheat of the present day, 

 with its numerous varieties, might be the descendant of plants which 

 have to-day disappeared, either because their home was submerged by 

 the sea or because they were the result of a convergence of several 

 species deviating in the same direction or mixed in cultivation, which 

 would make the determination of their origin almost impossible. 



In the universities the view has generally been held that the home 



