4 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



at the meeting of the Society of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians held at Stuttgart in 1834. There the Count of 

 Sternberg showed ears of two wheat plants which he stated had 

 been grown from some ancient grains obtained from Egypt. 

 All botanists admired this display and those who were versed 

 in agricultural botany found that it completely resembled a 

 modern variety termed " Talavera wheat." Talavera is a 

 town in Spain. During Napoleon's invasion of Spain the 

 tine beardless white wheat of that region was transported to 

 France and thence to Germany. 



Why did it resemble this particular variety of modern 

 wheat? Nobody asked that question at that time, and hith- 

 erto no one in botanical literature has declared Sternberg's 

 wheat story to be false ; but the men who assisted at that 

 meeting learned how it happened. The gardener of Count 

 Sternberg, seeing that the grains did not germinate, put 

 some fresh wheat grains in the pot to provide a pleasure for 

 his master. This makes it clear why the wheat of the 

 Ancients a la Sternberg resembled the Talavera wheat. I 

 obtained this interesting information from my old instructor, 

 the famous Professor Alexander Braun, who as a young man 

 assisted at the Stuttgart meeting. 



I will add that Prof. Gain* in Nancy has shown some years 

 ago that in all ancient seeds the embryo is detached from the 

 mealy part of the grain, and that it is chemically and anatom- 

 ically altered and therefore cannot receive nurture. I had 

 previously demonstrated! that corn obtained from the Peru- 

 vian sepulchres could not germinate because the embryo is 

 quite brown. In fresh grains of cereals, especially in barley, 

 the embryo contains a nearly liquid fat. In grains which are 

 one or more years old the fat is coagulated. This affords a 

 good means for distinguishing fresh barley from old, if one 

 cannot make a test by germination. 



What species of wheat were cultivated in ancient Egypt? 



* Edmond Gain, Sur les embryons du ble" et de l'orge pharaoniques. 

 Oomptes-rendus 11 Juin, 1900, — Sur le vieillissement de l'embryon des 

 Graminees. Comptes rendus 23 Dec, 1901. 



t Reiss u. Stiibel, Das Totenfeld von Ancon. Test to PI. 105-107. 



