WHEAT 



13 



The spike consists of a central axis, and spikelets (or groups 

 of flowers) arranged alternately on each side of it. There are 

 sometimes as many as five flowers in a group, but often only 

 three, and as the top flower is always barren, the grains or seeds 

 in a spikelet vary in number from two to four. Each grain is 

 enclosed in two light papery husks called pales, and at the base 

 of the spikelet there are 

 two more called glumes. 



There are many varieties 

 of wheat, two of the chief 

 in England being winter 

 wheat and summer wheat. 

 The former is sown in the 

 autumn and reaped the 

 next year, the latter is 

 sown in the spring of the 

 year in which it is har- 

 vested. Summer wheat is 

 bearded, that is, one of 

 its pales ha^ a long awn or 

 bristle. 



When the wheat is cut 

 down in the field it is bound 

 into bundles called sheaves, 

 and a small collection of 

 these (in England twelve) 

 set up together on the 

 ground is called a stook. 



In former days the husks were removed by threshing the 

 ears with a flail, and this primitive method is still practised 

 in remote country districts, but in most places the threshing 

 is now done by machinery. The wheat grain thus released 

 is of a bright yellow colour, rounded on one side and with 

 a groove down the other. The husks, i.e. the pales and glumes 

 when separated from the grain, are called chaff, and the stalks 

 straw. 



CULTIVATED WHEAT 



