234 



have thick bran, and some tliin; some are brown, red, amber or white; 

 some are soft and starchy, others hai-d and flinty. Fall-wheat may be 

 clianged into spiing-wheat and spring-wheat into fall-wheat by repeated 

 sowing in about three (3) years. 



A grain of wheat is not a seed but an entire fruit, and roughly 

 .speaking consists of three main elements: the husk or bran, the flour 

 and the germ. 



The husk or bran consists of four layers of cells, the two outside 

 •ones being called fruit coats, and the two inside ones being called seed 

 coats. In the first layer the cells run lengthways along the berry and 

 become shorter as they approach the ends. The cells of the second 

 •layer are across and round the berry. From the first of the.se layers, 

 :at the end opposite the germ, springs a mass of vegetable hairs forming 

 what millers call the "fuzz," and which they remove as much as 

 possible with scouring machines, before tiie wiieat is ground. 



In wheat the walls of these hairs are thicker than the widtli of 

 the canal. In the fuzz of rye the canal is wider than the thickness of 

 the wall. Tills furnishes one mode of detecting a mixture of rye in 

 wheaten flour. Underneath the fruit coats we find the seed coats called 

 ithe dermis or covering of the gei-m; the cells of these coats cross each 

 other almost at right angles. The upper one is called the transparent 

 layer and the lower one the color layer. It is Ihe coloring matter in 

 this layer that gives the peculiar hue to the wheat berry which we 

 term red, brown, amber or white. The only exce})tion to this is a 

 variety called violet wheat found by the African traveller Hildebnind 

 on the shores of the Ked 8ea, the coloring matter in this variety being 

 found in the transverse cells of the outside coat. 



The inside seed coats contain a peculiar kind of ferment which 

 acts upon the gluten and liquefies it. This ferment is insoluble in 

 water. Boiling water destroys its activity, a lower temperature retards 

 its action, a dry heat of 212 degrees Farenheit does not elTect it. 

 Moisture and warmth are necessary for its develojnnent and a tempera- 

 ture of al)0ut 75 degi'ees Fai-enheit is most favorable. 



Underneath these inside coats there is a thin film which botanists 

 -.tell us is (he remains of the seed bud. 



