PLANTS CULTIVATED FOB THEIR SEEDS. 361 



absence of names in several other countries, especially of 

 original names, is very striking. This is a farther indi- 

 cation of a derivation from the common wheat obtained 

 in Spain and the north of Africa at an unknown epoch, 

 perhaps within the Christian era. 



4. Polish Wheat Triticum polonicum, Linnseus. 



This other hard wheat, with yet longer grain, culti- 

 vated chiefly in the east of Europe, has not been found 

 wild. It has an original name in German, Gdner, Gommer, 

 Gummer, 1 and in other languages names which are 

 connected only with persons or with countries whence 

 the seed was obtained. It cannot be doubted that it is 

 a form obtained by cultivation, probably in the east of 

 Europe, at an unknown, perhaps recent epoch. 



Conclusion as to the Specific Unity of the Principal 

 Races of Wheat. 



We have just shown that the history and the ver- 

 nacular names of the great races of wheat are in favour 

 of a derivation contemporary with man, probably not 

 very ancient, from the common kind of wheat, perhaps 

 from the small-grained wheat formerly cultivated by the 

 Egyptians, and by the lake-dwellers of Switzerland and 

 Italy. Alefeld 2 arrived at the specific unity of T. vul- 

 gare, T. turgidum, and T. durum, by means of an atten- 

 tive observation of the three cultivated together, under the 

 same conditions. The experiments of Henri Vilmorin 3 

 on the artificial fertilization of these wheats lead to the 

 same result. Although the author has not yet seen the 

 product of several generations, he has ascertained that 

 the most distinct principal forms can be crossed with 

 ease and produce fertile hybrids. If fertilization be 

 taken as a measure of the intimate degree of affinity 

 which leads to the grouping of individuals into the same 

 species, we cannot hesitate in the case in question, 

 especially with the support of the historical considera- 

 tions which I have given. 



1 Nemnich, Lexicon, p. 1488. 2 Alefeld, Bot. Zeitung, 1865, p. 9. 

 3 H. Vilmorin, Bull. Soc. Bot. de France, 1881, p. 356. 



