PK0CEED1NGS. 



Nevertheless naturalists appear, with one accord, to have treated 

 the notion of Wheat coming from iEgilops ovata as an absurdity, 

 with the exception of two French observers, whose experiments 

 arrived at no known result. About the year 1824, the late 

 Mr. Eequien, a zealous French botanist, residing at Avignon, 

 observed in the neighbourhood of that city a (to him) new kind 

 of iEgilops, which he called triticoides, because of its resemblance 

 to Wheat ; and Signor Bertoloni, who introduced it into his 

 Italian Flora, states that it has also been fouud in Sicily, by 

 Professors Gussone and Tenore. There is also in the south of 

 France another iEgilops, called triaristata, supposed to be a distinct 

 species. Thus, according to botanists, there are three different 

 kinds of this genus in the south of Europe, and these have been 

 each the subject of M. Esprit Fabre's experiments. The first 

 point established by this observer was that both iEgilops ovata 

 and triaristata would produce what Requien called triticoides. It 

 would therefore seem, that the three supposed species were all 

 forms of the same species. In fact, the very same ear which 

 yields either ovata or triaristata also yields triticoides. Never- 

 theless, M. Fab re calls them perfectly distinct from each other, 

 aud is of opinion, that when iE. ovata runs to triticoides, it gives 

 rise to the small grained smooth Wheats which the French call 

 Seissette and Touzelle ; while, on the other hand, when iE. tri- 

 aristata runs into triticoides, it gives birth to the coarser Wheats 

 with downy ears, known in lower Languedoc uuder the name 

 of Fourmen and Petanielle, among which Egyptian Wheat is 

 included. Be that as it may, and M. Fabre offers the statement 

 merely as an hypothesis, it is certain that iEgilops triticoides, 

 when once produced, if raised from seed year after year, goes on 

 changing, until at last it becomes mere Wheat. This, at least, 

 was the result of M. Fabre's experiment, which was spread over a 

 series of twelve years. Season after season, the change went on 

 — but slowly. Little by little, one part altei'ed or another. The 

 wretched hungry grain grew plumper ; the flour in it increased ; 

 its size augmented. The starved ears soon formed other spikelets ; 

 the spikelets at first containing but two flowers, at last became 

 capable of yielding four or five. The straw stiffened, the leaves 

 widened, the ears lengthened, the corn softened and augmented, 

 till at last wheat itself stood revealed, and of such quality, that 

 it was not excelled on the neighbouring farms. 



From Mr. Grey, Gardener to W. Cuthbert, Esq., of Beaufort, 

 Hexham, came fruit of the Houghton, or Piaby Castle Currant, a 



