388 The Transformation of Plants. 



was the valley of Enna, in Sicily, where it is said that the 

 fables of Ceres and Triptolemiis originated. In fact there 

 grows in Sicily, in great abundance, a wild grass, called by 

 botanists JEgilops ovata, the grain of which is much like 

 that of starved wheat, but whose floral organs are of a very 

 different character, and whose ears naturally fall to pieces by 

 a separation of the joints when ripe. This kind of grain is 

 said to have borne the name of Ble du diahle; the plant 

 which produced it was even called by Cassalpinus TfHiicum 

 sylvestre. Nevertheless naturalists appear, with one accord, 

 to have treated the notion of wheat coming from uEgilops 

 ovata as an absurdity, with the exception of two French 

 observers, whose experiments arrived at no known result. 



About the year 1824, the late M. Requien, a zealous 

 French botanist, residing at Avignon, observed in the neigh- 

 borhood of that city a, to him, new kind of jEgilops, which 

 he called triticoides, because of its resemblance to wheat; 

 and Signor Bertoloni, who introduced it into his Italian Flora, 

 states that it has also been found in Sicily, by Professors 

 Gussone and Tenore. There is also in the South of France 

 another jEgilops, called triaristata, supposed to be a distinct 

 species. Thus, according to botanists, there are three differ- 

 ent kinds of this genus in the South of Europe, and these 

 have been each the subject of M. Esprit Fabre's experiments. 



The first point established by this observer was that both 

 jEgilops ovata and triaristata would produce what Requien 

 called triticoides. It would therefore seem that the three 

 supposed species were all forms of the same species. In fact, 

 the very same ear which yields either ovata or triaristata, 

 also yields triticoides. Nevertheless, M. Fabre calls them 

 perfectly distinct from each other, and is of opinion that 

 when jE. ovata runs to triticoides, it gives rise to the small 

 grained smooth wheats which the French call Seissette and 

 Touzelle; while, on the other hand, when J5J. triaristata 

 runs into triticoides, it gives birth to the coarser wheats with 

 downy ears, known in Lower Languedoc under the name of 

 Fourmen and Petanielle, among which Egyptian wheat is 

 included. Be that as it may, and M. Fabre offers the state- 



