38 AGRICULTURAL AND BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PALESTINE. 



be discovered, there was a small group of the most distinguished 

 botanists who maintained not only that such a prototype existed 

 but that they already had it in their possession. In 1873 Kornicke, 

 when preparing the notes for his standard work on the cereals," had 

 discovered in the herbarium of the National Museum of Vienna, 

 among the stems of Hordeum spontaneum which Kotschy had 

 gathered at Rasheyya, on the northwestern side of Mount Hernion, 

 in 1855, part of an ear of a graminiferous plant which he considered 

 to be a wild wheat and which resembled the emmer ( Triticum dicoc- 

 cum). But, with an unaccountable forgetfulness, Kornicke did not 

 speak of this discovery in the work mentioned, which appeared in 

 1885, and it was not until 1889, at a meeting of the Society of the 

 Lower Ehine and Westphalia, that he reported his discovery. 6 At 

 that time he named Kotschy 's plant Triticum vulgare dicoccoides and 

 declared it to be the prototype of the cultivated wheats. Afterwards 

 Kornicke returned repeatedly to the discussion of the question, urg- 

 ing all botanists who went into the region of Mount Hermon to give 

 their attention to the subject and trying to induce the scientific 

 academies of Vienna and Berlin to organize an expedition for that 

 purpose. His efforts, however, were in vain. 



In 1902 Ascherson and Graebner published their " Synopsis of the 

 Middle European Flora.'' In this work, in the monograph dealing 

 with the Tritici, they set forth Kornicke's views, which thus reached 

 a large public. In order to understand why Kornicke believed that 

 Kotschy's plant represented the wild prototype of wheat, it is neces- 

 sary to know something of the conclusions he had reached regarding 

 the classification and development of the genus Triticum, which 

 includes wheat and several closely related grasses. 



BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION OF WHEATS. 



In the work just mentioned, which adopts the excellent classifica- 

 tion of Kornicke in its essential features, but also takes into account 

 the investigations of Hackel, the wheats are classified as follows: 



In the section Entritieiun there are three species — Triticum monococcum (ein- 

 kom), Triticum polonicum (Polish wheat), and, thirdly, a collective species. 

 Triticum sa tivum. 



Triticum sativum is divided into three small species: 

 Triticum dicoccum (eniruer). 

 Triticum spelta (spelt). 

 Triticum tenax (common wheats). 



a Kornicke and Werner. Handbuch des Getreidebaues. 1885. 

 6 Verhandlungen des Natnrhistorischen Vereins der Preussischen Rheinlande, 

 Westfalens, und des Regierungs-Bezirks Osnabriick. Bonn, 1889. 

 180 



