PREFACE 



MORE than twenty years ago, when first engaged in the teaching of botany 

 to agricultural students, I became aware of the botanist's neglect of culti- 

 vated plants, and in the preparation of my text-book of Agricultural 

 Botany found it necessary to make a first-hand study of all the common 

 crops before any living interest could be created in the work I had under- 

 taken. 



I then determined upon a more intensive study of the chief farm plants 

 with a view of writing a series of botanical monographs upon them as 

 opportunity permitted. 



Administrative duties and teaching have prevented me from earning 

 out the project as designed. Nevertheless, I have kept alive the intention, 

 and the present monograph is an embodiment of researches made upon 

 the wheat plant. 



I hope that it may serve in a modest way as a model of the research 

 that is needed upon all farm plants, and act as a stimulus to further effort. 



The plants with which the farmer has to deal provide limitless fields 

 of exploration for the plant physiologist, anatomist, student of variation 

 and heredity, and indeed all ranks of botanists. Their study will satisfy 

 the most ardent aspirations of the academic mind in its pursuit of so-called 

 pure science, and the discoveries to be made cannot fail to be of service 

 in enabling the cultivator to obtain higher economic returns from the soil 

 on which all animal life ultimately depends. 



In Part I. of the monograph are given the results of my investigations 

 of the morphology, anatomy, growth, and development of the wheat 

 plant. Kxcept where otherwise indicated, the various measurements 

 and illustrations refer to the ordinary dense-eared type of Bread wheat 

 (T. vulgare) commonly grown in Great Britain. 



In Part II. are described and discussed the taxonomy, characters, and 

 relationships of the wild species of wheat and the races and varieties of 



