114 WHEAT STEMS 



to 2 feet in height with spikes and flowers 

 containing as many as twelve spikelets. 



The genuineness of the connection between 

 the grass JEgilops and our wheat is established 

 by the fact that the bruised foliage of the wild 

 grass and the cultivated wheat both emit the 

 same odour ; still further, both are subject to the 

 attacks of the same species of parasites (blights). 



Wheat and other cerealia contain in their 

 herbage, and especially in their seeds, nutri- 

 tious principles which entitle them to take first 

 rank amongst the plants useful to man, and 

 of the greatest importance from an economic 

 point of view. 



Besides starch, sugar, and mucilage, they 

 yield sulphoazotised matters such as fibrin, 

 casein, albumen elements essential to the 

 formation of flesh in animals ; especially do 

 they yield phosphate of lime, the basis of their 

 bony framework. 



A very curious experiment can be performed 

 with a growing stem of wheat. There are to 

 be noticed, at considerable distances apart, 

 certain knot-like swellings nodes sharply 



