SMALL SPELT 173 



Each fertile spikelet is about 10 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, and 3 mm. 

 thick, the front being convex, the back flatter. 



The glumes are glabrous or slightly pubescent. 



The two empty glumes are shorter than the flowering glumes, boat- 

 shaped and unsymmetrical, the halves of each right and left of the midrib 

 differing considerably in form and width. They are strongly keeled from 

 apex to base and usually 5-nerved, one small nerve being found on the 

 inner narrow side of the glume close to the midrib and three others on the 

 broad outer half, the outermost of these nerves being strong and forming 

 a conspicuous rib. 



The exposed part of the glume turned away from the rachis between 

 the keel and the third strong nerve is thick and leathery, but its 

 edges and the whole of the inner half nearest the rachis are thin and mem- 

 branous. 



The apex of the empty glume is notched in a characteristic manner, 

 the keel terminating in an acute point or tooth 1-2 mm. long, the strong 

 secondary nerve of the broad exposed half ending in a shorter tooth -5- 

 i mm. long (Fig. 115), while a third blunter projection is seen on the narrow 

 inner half. 



The flowering glume is boat-shaped, rounded on the back, and without 

 a keel. It is thin, white, and semi-transparent, with 9 to n nerves, the 

 middle and two outermost being the strongest. The apex is divided 

 into two short points between which arises a long straight scabrid awn of 

 triangular section. 



Well-developed awns which are only associated with the lowest flower 

 of a spikelet van- in length from 3 to 8 cm., those in the upper part of the 

 ear being longest. The second flowering glume, whether belonging to a 

 barren or a fertile flower, has a short awn usually not more than 2-5 mm. 

 long, or is awnless. 



The palea is a thin membranous glume equalling the flowering glume 

 in length, with two nerves and terminating in a blunt apex. At first it 

 i* entire, but shows a slight inward fold down the centre, along which it is 

 torn into two separate halves when the fruit ripens ; the latter character, 

 together with the compressed fruit, led Scringe to place Small Spelt in a 

 separate genus, \irieria. 



The flowers are of the ordinary gramineous type with yellow anthers 

 4-45 mm. long and lodicules which are pubescent in the upper part. 



The abortive second flower ot the spikelet possesses a pistil whose 

 stigmas are rudimentary, and three stamens, the anthers of which do not 

 produce pollen-grains. 



Anthesis begins in the upper third of the ear. 



The caryopsis, which is closely invested by the glumes, is yellowish 

 and flinty, oval and tapered at both ends, the outline of both the dorsal and 



