66 



THE SMALL GRAINS 



engrain in French. The German name has been adopted 

 in this country and is already fairly well known in Ameri- 

 can literature. 



The plant of einkorn is short, with thin narrow leaves, 

 and presents a peculiar appearance in the field. It sel- 

 dom reaches a height of more than three 

 feet. The stem is hollow, slender, and 

 very stiff. The leaves of the growing 

 plant are usually yellowish green, some- 

 times blue-green. Portions of the culm 

 may be brown. The spikes are slender, 

 narrow, very compact, awned, and much 

 flattened on the two-rowed sides, and 

 always stand erect, even when ripe, but 

 easily break in pieces. The spikelets 

 are flat on the inner side, or form a 

 concave surface with the projecting 

 edges of the glumes. They are arranged 

 very compactly in the spike and are 

 one-kerneled, except in the variety 

 Engrain double, where they possess two 

 kernels. The glumes are deeply boat- 

 on left, spike and shaped and rather sharply keeled, the 

 s^etoi rfgTt! keel terminating in a stiff tooth. The 

 spikelet and ker- kernels, which are tightly inclosed in 

 ' x ly ' the spikelet, are light red and extremely 



flattened, becoming thus bluntly two-edged and possessing 

 an exceedingly narrow furrow (Fig. 21). 



This species is at present but little improved over the 

 original wild form, and only a few varieties have been 

 developed. Nevertheless some of the most valuable 

 qualities may be expected from these varieties if they can 

 be successfully employed in hybridization experiments. 



FIG. 21. Einkorn 



