1103 



TRIMESURUa 



TRITICUM, 



no i 



The peasant* in France stylo them ' Bites-h-Dieu,' honouring their 

 useful qualities ; whilst the English name of Lndy-Bird does homage 

 to their beauty. Some of the specie* are widely distributed, such as the 

 very common CotcineUa septum-jiunctata, which extends its range over 

 all Kurope and parts of Asia and Africa. In England we have six 

 gcm-ra of CoccineUuUr, and more than fifty species. 



TRIMESURU3. [CROTALID*.] 



TKINOA. [CuAKAUiuiD.t ; SCOLOPACID.F..] 



TKl'NIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order I'mMli- 

 fcrtr, named after Dr. C. B. Trinius of St Petersburg. The species of 

 this genus, which are not numerous, have been referred to J'imjiimlla 

 and fruit, but the dioecious flowers and the difference between the 

 structure of the petals in the barren and fertile flowers render it very 

 distinct. One of this species, the T. glabcrrima, Smooth Honewort, 

 is an inhabitant of Great Britain, but must bo looked upon as a rarity. 

 It has been found on limestone in Somersetshire, Com wall, and Devon- 

 shire. The whole plant is of a pale glaucous green colour, has remark- 

 able segments of the leaves, which are tripinnate ; no involucre. 

 It appears to be the same plant as the T. tulgarii of De (Jaudolle, 

 which is found in the southern parts of Germany, in Switzerland, and 

 Austria. 



TIUNU'CLEUS. [TRILOBITES.] 



TKIO'DIA, a genus of Grasses belonging to the tribe Arenine<r. 

 The glumes are from 2- to 3-fiowered; the outer polea rather coriaceous, 

 smooth, rounded on the back, bifid, with an intermediate broad point 

 sometimes becoming the base of a kneed awn. T. decumbent is found 

 in mountain pastures in Great Britain. 



TIU'ODON. [GVMNODOSTES.] 



T1UONYX. [CrtKLONlA.1 



TRIOPTOLEMEA. [TKIITOI.OMEA.] 



TKIOSTEUM (from rptis, three, and Irriav, a bone, in reference to 

 the three bony ends in each berry), a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order Cajirifoliacta. It has a calyx, with an ovate tube and 

 a 5 parted permanent limb, with linear lanceolate permanent lobes. 

 The corolla is tubular, almost equally 5-lobed, gibbous at the base, 

 and longer than the calyx. The stamens are 5, and inclosed ; the 

 stigma oblong and thick ; the berry coriaceous, obovately triquetrous, 

 crowned by the calyx, 3-celled, and 3-seeded. The species are perma- 

 nent herbs, rarely suffruticose. 



T. pcrfotiatum, Fever-Wort, has an erect hairy fistulnr round stem 

 from one to four feet high. The leaves opposite, the pairs crossing 

 each other, ovate, lanceolate, acuminate, entire, rather flat, abruptly 

 narrowed into the petiole ; the flowers sessile, apparently verticillate. 

 It is a native of North America, in the United States, ou rich rocky 

 ground", particularly in limestone soil. 



The species of Tri'jthum will grow in almost any kind of soil, 

 although they prefer a vegetable or peat mould, and they are easily 

 propagated by dividing at the root or by seeds, which generally ripen 

 in abundance. 



TR1PHANE. [SroDUMEXE.] 



'1 1:1 I'll A '.SI A, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Auraniiaccit, of which the species are found in the East Indies, 

 Cochin-China, and China. The calyx is 3-eleft ; petals 3 ; stamens (i, 

 rarely 6-8; filaments awl-shaped, flat; anthers cordate, oblong ; fruit 

 baccate, 1-3-celled ; feeds 1 in each cell The species form thorny 

 shrubs with simple or trifoliate leaves. The fruit of T. trifoliate is 

 acid in taste, something like the orange, and is both preserved and 

 eaten as a fruit. 



TR1PHVLIXK. [Inox] 



TRIPOLI, a Mineral, occurring massive, with a coarse dull earthy 

 fracture. It is meagre and rough to the touch, and yields readily to 

 the nail. Colour, various shades of gray, yellow, and red. It imbibes 

 water, which softens it ; when burned it becomes white and is hardened ; 

 it is very difficult of fusion. Itwas first brought from Tripoli in Africa, 

 but has since been found in France, Italy, and Germany. It is em- 

 ployed in polishing metals, marble, glass, to. It consists of silica, 

 alumina, and oxide of iron. 



TUIPOXYLON. [CRABKOSID*.] 



TUII-SU'RUS. [PlciD*.] 



TIU1TOLOMEA, a genus of Plant* belonging to the natural order 

 Fubactie, or Leguminow, and to the sub-order Papilionaceir. The 

 species are native* of warm climates, and yield the Rose-Wood of 

 commerce. 



TRISKTt'M, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Grumtnacta. The inflorescence is panicled ; the spikelets 2-7-flowered ; 

 glumes with a keel, membranous ; lower palca with 2 bristles, and a 

 tender flwtuose beard above the middle of ita back ; scale lanceolate. 



T. Jtaracau, Golden Oat, or Yellow Out-Grass, hag the panicle much 

 branched, spreading, erect ; spikelet* 3-flowered, all the florets awned. 

 It is common in Great Britain, especially in rich pastures. Sheep are 

 very fond of it. 



TRISTI'CHIUS,a genus of Fossil Fishes from the Coal-Measures 

 near Glasgow and Fermanagh. (Agaraiz.) 



TRI'TICUH, a genus of Plant* yielding the various kinds of Wheat, 

 and belonging to the natural order Gruminnccn. It derives its name, 

 according to Varro, from ' tritum,' ground or rubbed, because the fruit 

 in it* preparation as a food for man undergoes the process of grinding 

 or trituration. The various kinds of wheat have been known from a 



very early period, and mention is made of wheat as a food in tli" 

 earliest records of the history of man. Both the Egyptians and .'.- 

 made use of wheat as an article of diet, and this food is early mentioned 

 in the Bible. It was also used by the Greeks and Romans, and Theo- 

 phrastus and Pliny make frequent mention of it. On account of thr 

 early cultivation of many of the kinds of wheat ai articles of diet, it is 

 impossible to tell where the most common specie* are really indigenous. 

 All the species of Triticum are however found most abundantly in 

 temperate climates, and there take the place of the foods used in thu 

 hotter part* of the world. Wheat is in northern climates what rice 

 and maize are iu warmer ones. The part of the plant of Trilicum 

 which yields so large a proportion of the food of man in the fruit, 

 seeds, or gram. This fruit, although small in itself, generally forms 

 a large proportion of the plant. When the fruit is ground, the testa, 

 or seed-coat, is separated from what ia called the flour. This flour 

 consists of the powdered albumen and embryo of the seed. Tho 

 proximate vegetable principles which this flour contains are starch nnd 

 gluten. The starch is a highly carbonised vegetable principle, whilst 

 the gluten is characterised by possessing nitrogen. Foods that contain 

 carbonaceous matters are fattening, whilst those that contain in- 

 ure strengthening. It is thus that wheat-flour has become to be tbo 

 staple article of diet of the finest races of men in the world. The 

 other cereal grasses contain the same principles, but the gluten or 

 azotised principle is not in so large a quantity 03 in wheat, an the fol- 

 lowing analysis of 1 00 parts of the organic matter of wheat, rice, and 

 barley will show : 



Starch. Gluten. 



Wheat 70-00 23 '00 



Rice .... . 85-07 3-60 



Barley 79-00 16-00 



The starch is often separated from the gluten and used fur v 

 purposes in domestic economy. [STARCH.] Gluten is identical with 

 r'ibrine, and ia a form of Protein. [PROTKIN.] 



The straw of wheat, and the chaff, or the culm, and the flower 

 contain 79 per cent, of organic matter. This consists principally of 

 unazotised vegetable matter, and may therefore be used as an article 

 of diet for cattle. The culms of wheat are also used for the purpose 

 of making plait from which straw hate and bonnets are made, a manu- 

 facture of considerable importance in some parts of thia country. 



The genus Triticum is known by possessing solitary spikelets, with 

 the glumes 2-valved and many-flowered ; the valves carinate, acute, 

 or mucronate ; the paleas 2-valved ; the valves lanceolate, the external 

 one acuminate, the internal one bifid at the extremity. The prim- 

 consists of about 40 species; of these 1C are European, and only 5 arc 

 natives of Britain. The species are divided into two groups the 

 Cercalia, yielding edible fruits ; and the Agropyra, which are merely 

 grasses. The latter group is by some writers, as Beauvois and Lindley, 

 made into a distinct genus. It includes all the species that are native* 

 of Great Britain. 



The C'ercaJia are knowu by their spikelets being more or less ventri- 

 cose and turgid, and the valves are ovate or oblong. The.se are again 

 divided into the Frumenta, or True Wheats, in which the seeds fall 

 out from the chaff; and the S/icltir, or Spelts, in which the seeds 

 remain attached to the chad'. The most important species belonging 

 to the former division are the following : 



T. vulgare, Common Wheat, has a 4-cornered imbricated spike with 

 4-flowered spikeleU, the valvea ventricose, ovate, truncate, mucronate, 

 compressed under the apex, the nerve somewhat prominent, 

 species includes the T. wttivum and T. hybcrnum of many botanists. 

 They appear however to be only varieties of this species, differing in 

 their periods of growth. The native country of this species is not well 

 ascertained : it has been found wild in some districts of Persia, also of 

 Siberia, apparently removed from the influence of cultivation. Tho 

 T. hybcrnum is the Lammas, or Winter-Wheat, and embraces by far 

 the greater number of varieties which are cultivated as the food of man. 

 The wheats known in Great Britain and on the Continent as Fox, 

 Kentish, Talavera, Bohemian or Velvet, Red, White, and Red-lvn <1 

 Bearded Wheats, are varieties of T. hybcrnum. 



T. luiyiilum, Turgid, Cone, or English Wheat, is known principally 

 by it* prominent carinie. About 10 varieties of this species are known 

 to agriculturists, half of which are summer and half winter wheats. 

 Of these the Clock, Great or Revel Wheat, and the Russian, or blue 

 English Wheat, are the best. 



T. durum, True Beard-Wheat, has the prominent carina! of the last 

 wheat, with the valves ventrioose, oblong, and three times longer than 

 broad. It is a native of Switzerland. It has several varieties, all of 

 which produce Rummer wheats, and are better known in Italy, Sicily, 

 and Spain than in this country. 



T. J'olonicum, Poliih Wheat, has the spike irregularly 4-coriicml 

 or compressed; the spikelets 3-flowered; the valves subven'i 

 oblongo-lanceolate, herbaceous, with many nerves. It is found native 

 in some port* of Europe, not however in the country which gives it 

 its name. In cultivation it yields summer wheats, which are adapted 

 for warmer climates than Great Britain. 



The Spelts include the following species : T. i/ieUa, Spelt- Wheat ; 

 T. dicoccum, Two-Grained, or Rice-Wheat ; and T. monococcum, One- 

 Grained Wheat. 



The Agropyra do not possess Ventricose-turgid spikeleU, and the 



