100 Elementary Species 



served on his farm at Saleves near the lake of 

 Geneva that after a lapse of time the ' ' Galland- 

 wheat '^ deteriorated and assumed, as was gen- 

 erally believed, the characters of the local sorts. 

 In order to ascertain the real cause of this ap- 

 parent change, he sowed in alternate rows in a 

 field, the '^ Galland " and one of the local va- 

 rieties. The ^' Galland " is a race with ob- 

 vious characters and was easily distinguished 

 from the other at the time when the heads were 

 ripe. They are bearded when flowering, but 

 afterwards throw off the awns. The kernels 

 are very large and yield an extraordinarily 

 good, white flour. 



During the first summer all the heads of the 

 ^^ Galland " rows had the deciduous awns but 

 the following year these were only seen on half 

 of the plants, the remainder having smooth 

 heads, and the third year the " Galland " had 

 nearly disappeared, being supplanted by the 

 competing local race. The cause of this rapid 

 change was found to be twofold. First the 

 " Galland," as an improved variety, suffers 

 from the winter in a far higher degree than the 

 native Swiss sorts, and secondly it ripens its 

 kernels one or two weeks later. At the time of 

 harvest it may not have become fully ripe, while 

 the varieties mixed with it had reached maturity. 



The wild oat, Avena fatua, is very common in 



