2 t2 



swamp and in a meadow, and appears to delight in 

 a wet soil, which is not congenial with the common 

 wheat. It presents not only a different aspect, hut 

 seems to have peculiar and characteristic qualities. 



Linnseus, if I remember rightly, made six species 

 of Ti^iticum. Sixteen species are now enumerated, 

 besides varieties ; and these are found in the most 

 diversified climates : the Murwaary Wheat of Bar- 

 bary ; the Spring Wheat of Siberia ; the Spelter of 

 Germany ; the Wheat of Egypt, of Switzerland, of 

 Poland, and of Sicily, cannot be derived from the 

 same country. Ceres, who, according to the hea- 

 then mythology, discovered corn, was said to have 

 had her principal seat in Sicily ; but this granary 

 of the ancient world has no exclusive claims to the 

 most important of the Cerealia. The Frome?it tre- 

 mais, which arrives at maturity in these marshes, is 

 as different from the other kinds of Triticum, as it is 

 possible for different species to be ; and it unques- 

 tionably could not have had an identity of local 

 origin with them. 



I have been a long time of opinion, that many of 

 our native plants have been improperly considered 

 as naturalized ; and as I am anxious to claim the 

 most important culmiferous plant as an indigenous 

 production, I have no hesitation in denominating 

 this wheat, discovered near Rome, Triticum ameri- 

 canum. 



I also transmit by this opportunity specimens of 

 a plant called the Wild Rye, which grows sponta- 

 neously and in considerable quantities in the coun- 



