274 THE WHEAT PLANT 



BEARDED VARIETIES 



Of some 1300 examples of T. vulgar e collected from all parts of the world 

 about one-half are bearded. 



Among them Spring and Winter wheats are found in almost equal proportion, 

 some of the former being exceptionally rapid in their growth. 



In all countries with hot summers, except Australia, bearded varieties pre- 

 vail, and although the baking quality of the flour of these wheats is usually good, 

 the yield per acre is generally very low. 



In Western Europe, where intensive cultivation is practised, such wheats are 

 rarely grown. Occasionally bearded spring forms are sown when adverse 

 climatic conditions have prevented the sowing of the higher-yielding, beardless, 

 Winter wheats, but even in these circumstances a better financial return is 

 generally obtainable from oats, so that on most farms the latter crop, or barley 

 where the soil is suitable, takes the place of wheat when sowing is necessarily 

 delayed until March or April. 



There is much less diversity of morphological and physiological characters 

 among the bearded than among the beardless forms of T. vulgare. More than 

 90 per cent possess lax, compressed ears, the density of which average 18-20 

 and rarely exceed 23-25. The awns are usually divergent, short in comparison 

 with those of T. durum or T. turgidum, varying in length from 5-10 cm. The 

 empty glumes have fine awns, 1-4 cm. long, or acute, apical teeth, which are never 

 so blunt as those of many beardless varieties and rarely so stout as those of T. 

 durum (cf. Figs. 138, 165, 166). 



The varieties including the greatest number of forms are erythrospermum and 

 ferrugineum. 



Ear bearded ; glumes white, glabrous ; grain white. 



T. vulgare, var. graecum, Korn. Syst. Uebers. n (1873). 



Kornicke received his type from Greece ; he obtained examples also from 

 Central Asia, Persia, and India. 



The variety is described by Metzger (Eur. Cer. p. i A), who refers to it as an 

 uncommon wheat found among other varieties in Germany, France, Spain, 

 Italy, and England. 



Although one of the less commonly grown varieties of T. vulgare, it is widely 

 distributed, especially in the warm wheat-growing regions of Asia. 



Of fifty examples collected from different parts of the world, the majority 

 came from Persia, India, and Central Asia (Bokhara and the province of Semiret- 

 chensk, Turkestan), single forms only being obtained from Bulgaria, Austria, 

 France, Spain, Egypt, the Transvaal, New Zealand, United States, and Canada. 



i. An early form received from the United Provinces, the Punjab, and 

 Bombay, and from Egypt under the name Hindi. 



Young shoots, erect. 



Straw, short and slender, 80-102 cm. (32-40 inches) high ; leaves more or less 

 glaucous. 



Ear, 7-9 cm. long, almost square in section, 10 mm. across the face and side, 

 with stout awns 4-6 cm. long ; spikelets 16 to 19, usually overlapping, some- 



