366 Bibliography. 
these last mentioned plants may seem to differ from the multitude of 
common grasses, the disciplined eye of the botanist perceives at a 
glance that they all belong to the same family ; and indeed, so emi- 
nently natural is the whole tribe, that is, so strong is the general re- 
semblance in the characters and habits of its members, that superficial 
observers, finding it so much easier to adopt, than to verify [correct ?] 
the crude notions of the vulgar, have actually supposed several species 
to be continually and reciprocally changing into each other! It isa 
curious circumstance in the history of this vulgar error, that in former 
times, when the occult sciences flourished, the peasantry of Europe 
imagined all our cultivated small grains to be subject to this kind of 
transmutation ; that: wheat was often changed, first into rye, then into 
barley, from barley into ray-grass or Lolium, from Lolium to Bromus or 
cheat, and. finally from-Bromus to oats. They supposed, moreover, 
that by the agency of a fertile soil, the degenerate grass could be grad- 
ually restored to its original form; or at least, that it could be brought 
back as far as rye !—‘ Veteres credebant frumentum per gradus degen- 
erare in macriori terra, atque Triticum in Secane, Secale in Hoxpeum, 
Hordeum in Bromum, Bromum in Avenam et sic per gradus descen- 
dere, immo credebant et jam semina Bromi vel Hordei in fertiliori terra 
producere Secale.* Caron a Linne, AM@niTaTEs ACADEMICE,, 
Tom. V.—Even in our own enlightened age and country, as we are 
wont to phrase it, there are yet many persons strongly tinctured with 
the notion, that wheat is frequently transmuted into Bromus, or cheat ; 
though I have not met with any so full in the faith as to believe that 
they can bring the degenerate offspring back again to its pristine state. 
his remarkable, also, that this obsolete notion, so entirely exploded 
among scientific naturalists, has lately found an advocate in a gentle- 
cocaine: A ARNE geologist, “and Whe has, . more paren 
limit... As that eniine has. been so astute in detecting the m mnt 
= 6 dentin the: quotation :— Duravit hac opinio, quamdiu plant earum- 
que flores « conspiciebantur e longinguo et fugitivis occulis ; postquam uam vero Mol 
Fum genera constituebant | pang ex fructificationibus geque diversis prog- 
a, shee opinio. Differunt enim inter se hee dicta Cerealia seu Gram- 
#, née unica pars figura ot proportione convenit, 
fruetara,, hee gramingy ac in sua specie constanter _ 
Cervyum a Ca- 
BILE Aides aah Hassan Sie cmcu- 
in o domo, fies bitin ast st eas 
Frumentium ; Aman, Acad. § 5, p 6. 
* 
? 
“eee 
