Q18 



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C nie siipposcil to liave l.ikeii iheir «rigin is leqnisite, in 

 '- Order lo diätiiii^uish llie wild sUite of a plant froiii such 

 US liavc nierely escapcd Iroiii ciillivalioii. Tlierc remaiiis. 

 ihcti, oiily in ansvver ol' llie (|nesli(iii, tliat a lypioal form 

 of lliese planls orij;inaily exisied, «liicli lias becn so 

 niüdilicd by ort und luinian slull . in conronnily with 

 nian's necessities ur nses, tliat il is mi lunger capahle 

 of bein<f recognised as such, tlioiigh existini,' in ils wild 

 State, or logether witli the furni prodiiced by cultnre. 

 That such alterallons of plants liave becn ell'ecled by 

 cuUivation, and are now beconic permanent, is beyond 

 question. Onr blennial cnitivatcd Carrots, with tiicir 

 snccnlenl well-IIavoured roots, niay be prodiiced in per- 

 l'ection al'ler somc generations, by tiic art of Ihe gar- 

 dener, from the annual wild l'orni , wliose rool is dry 

 and of an acrid taste (Lond. Hortic. Soc. Trans, ii. 1348). 

 \Ve cannol, bowever, prove the origln of other culli- 

 vated planls by experiment; we are ignorant, l'or in- 

 stance, how the Caulillovver originuted froni the normal 

 Crom of our Coleworls. The wild form of onr Polaloes 

 is far l'roni being perfeclly hnown. Of many fornis 

 found apparently wild in Ihe lower monntains of South 

 America and Mexico, wliirli have heen introduced into 

 syslematic natural hislory under the namens of Solanum 

 Commersoni, maglia, clnbcrosiim, inuiiite, verrucosum, 

 utile, stoloniferum, etc. (ü. C. Prod. Sysl. Veg. xiii. s. 

 I, 32, ()77; J. ü. Hooltcr, liol. Anlarct. Voy. 3'2,i, some- 

 times one, sonielimes anolher is hrought forward in 

 proof that an alteratiun of the original l'orni has been 

 efTected by culture, which by repLaled reproduclion 

 has becoine pcnniiiient, but w hose derivation from that 

 parlicular species has not been observed. A similar 

 origin has been assuniod for our species of corn, espe- 

 cially ftir th.e most imporlant of them, viz., Wheat, but 

 no one had sncceeded in indicating ihe original form, 

 and the alterations whicli had tahen place. Thal Ulis, 

 hovvever, has been effected we are assured by III. Esprit 

 Fahre, an intelligent gardener at Agde, near Montpel- 

 lier, to wliom we are indebled for soine excellenl oh- 

 servations on the plants of his rieh neighhonrhood (Ann. 

 des Sc. Kat. 2. Ser. vi. 376, 3 Ser. xiii. 122). The ob- 

 servations on which tliis resiill is grounded have been 

 puhlished by the aulliur liiinself very brielly in a small 

 pamphlel enlilled „Des Aegilops du midi de la Krance 

 et de leur Transformation," 20 s. in 4lo., wilh ihree 

 lithographic plales; ariil Prof. b'elix Dunal, of Mont- 

 pellier, has added a sl.ort preface and appendix, and 

 1 have myself, when at Montpellier in the auliimn of 

 1851, had an opporlunity of examining some dried spe- 

 cimens of the plants resiilling from llio experinienls of 

 M. Fahre, which luid heen coinniunicaled hy hini lo bis 

 friends in that neighhoiirliood. il Fahre coiisiders .aegi- 

 lops o\ala and Xv. Iriiiri.slala, of which Ihe first espe- 

 ciully ahuiuls cverjwliere ou ihe coasts of the Medi- 

 terraiieaii, as Ihe parent planls of our\yheat, an opinion 

 by no means nevv, bul one which bad never before 

 been supported by such weigbly arguiiients. The ge- 

 ncra Aegilops and Trilicum, il is well Unowii, Iboiigh 

 they agree in inllorescence, in the miiliiliide of llowers. 

 and in Ihe gcneial furiii and texture of the parls of 

 fiuctification, diller in this respect, that Ihe glumes in 

 Aegilops are more sw ollen, that ihe iipper spiUelels 



are abortive, containing no ovaries but only slamens, 

 and that the fruit, inslead of being coiivex on eilber 

 side, as in Wlieal. in concave. The presence and nuni- 

 ber of Ihe awns is inconstaul in eilher genus. and in 

 a s|)ecies or form of .Vegilops which Ue<|iiien. found in 

 Provence, and nained Ae. Iriticoides, but whicb occurs 

 in Sicily, at Palermo, as appears from specimens now 

 before me, and, if as I believe, Link's Crilhodinm .\egi- 

 lopoides (IJnnaea ix. 132, t. 3)' he tlie sanie tliing, in 

 (jreece also, the gliimes are gradually Halter, so that 

 their form, especially as at the saine lime Ihere is but 

 one awn inslead of several. approaches very closely to 

 that in the genus Trilicum. Fahre, wliose attention was 

 attracted by this phenonienon, nndertook in consequence 

 a series of experimcnts with Ac. ovata, which he cul- 

 livated with the greatest care for 12 years, from 1833 

 to IS')0, and at first in a plol of gronnd inclosed by 

 walls, in which no olher species of (irass exisied, and 

 afterwards in the open lield, surroiinded however by 

 vineyards. The result of Ibis experiment was that Ihe 

 plant acquired longer ears, wliose racliis was not britlle 

 as before when ripe, and in wliicb, step by siep, fewer 

 blossoms were abortive; the glumes, ineanwbile, were 

 less broad and Halter; inslead of a nuniber of awns, in 

 general one only reinained; and the ripe grain, which 

 in consequence of ils concave form remaineil inclosed 

 in the hollowed gliinie, hurst out by reasoii of ils iii- 

 creased thicluiess. In brief, the species .Vegilops ovala 

 had acquired a form, represented in ihc figures, which 

 evciy one inust recognise as that of a Trilicum, and 

 which in continued cullivalion was rclained williout 

 any lendency to return to ils original coudilion. M. 

 Fahre observed also llial Ae. triaristata Willd. was sub- 

 ject to the same mclaniorphoses, oiily he bccaine ac- 

 quainled wilh this species too lale to niake the saiiic 

 experinienls wilh it which he had inade wilh .\e. ovala, 

 so as to be able to prove ils Iransilion into Trilicum. 

 His treatise closcs wilh Ihcse words : ,.We had here 

 also (inslead of Aegilops ovala wilh which the expe- 

 riment was commenceil) a Trilicum, a Irue species of 

 Whcal, which cullivaled in Ihe open lield for foiir suc- 

 cessive years relained ils form and yielded h;ir\esl like 

 Ihat of olher corn of this kiiid;' and ill. Diuial adds, 

 „We are in consequence compelled lo allow, that 

 certain of our ciiltivated kinds of \N heat, if not all, are 

 nolhing more than peculiar forins of cerlain species of 

 .\egiiops, and that they can be reganled as iione olher 

 llian races of tliese species, so that to )I Esprit Fahre 

 belongs the honoiir of liaving demonslraled llie Irue 

 origin of cullivaled \Vheal, which olhers before hiin 

 only imagiued and have indicatcd douhlfully." 



\Vhate\er consideralion, however, niay be due lo 

 this expression of so acute and practical an ohserver, 

 wlio not only from personal acquaintance wilh a near 

 neighhour, but from an immediate inspeclion of Ihe re- 

 sult oblained by these experinienls, was in a condi- 

 tion to jndge of the correclness of the ohservalions, 

 and Ihe justice of the inferences, Ihe subject is too 

 imporlant, not to inake one wish for a repetition of 

 the' experinienls by a comhination of many persons of 

 different views — experinienls which are easy of re- 

 petition, anil have no olher difficulty Ihan the lenglli 1 



