Chap. 13.] BIRLET — IIICE, 2/ 



There are some differences, also, in the stem of wheat ; for 

 the better the kind the thicker it is. In Thrace, the stem ot 

 the wlieat is covered with several coats,^* which are rendered 

 absolutely necessary by the excessive cold of those regions. 

 It is the cold, also, that led to the discovery there of the three- 

 month'^ wheat, the ground being covered with snow most 

 <jf the year. At the end mostly of three months after it has 

 been sown, this wheat is ready for cutting, both in Thrace and 

 in other parts of the world as well. This variety is well known, 

 too, throughout all the Alpine range, and in the northern pro- 

 vinces there is no kind of wheat that is more prolific ; it has 

 a single stem only, is by no means of large size in any part of 

 it, and is never sown but in a thin, light soil. There is a two- 

 month ^^ wheat also found in the vicinity of .^nos, in Thrace, 

 which ripens the fortieth day after sowing ; and yet it is a 

 surprising fact, that there is no kind of wheat that weiglis 

 lieavier than this, while at the same time it produces no bran. 

 Koth Sicily and Achaia grow it, in the mountainous districts 

 of those countries ; as also Eubcea, in the vicinity of Carystus. 

 So greatly, then, is Columella in error, ^' in supposing that 

 there is no distinct variety of three-month wheat even ; the 

 fact being that these varieties have been known from the very 

 earliest times. The Greeks give to these wheats the name 

 of " setanion." It is said that in Bactria the grains of wheat 

 are of such an enormous size, that a single one is as large as 

 our ears of corn.^^ 



CHAP. 13. LAKLKT : EICE. 



Of all the cereals the first that is sown is barley. AVe shall 

 state the appropriate time for sowing eacli kind when we come 

 to treat of the nature of each individually. In India, there is 



31 This assertion, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii. c. 4, is not 

 hsised on truth. It is possible tliat he may allude in reahty to some otlier 

 gramineous plant. 



3^ Trimestre. se Biraestre. 



"• Columella (B. ii. c. 6) does fiot state to this effect ; on the contrary-, 

 he speaks of the existence of a three months' wheat; but he asserts, and with 

 justice, that wheat sown in the autumn is better than that sown in March. 



^* If he alludes here to what Theophrastus says, his assertion is simply 

 that, in Bactria, the grains are as large as an olive-stone. 



I 



