WHEAT. 



41 



wheat is indefinite, and depends upon local causes. 

 This power of multiplication, as possessed by the 

 grain-bearing plants, is called tillering. In its pro- 

 gress, the stalks do not rise immediately from the 

 germ, but are thrown out from different points of the 

 infant sprouts while yet they remain in contact with 

 the moist soil. An increase of the cereal plants, by 

 this means, is sometimes produced beyond anything 

 conceivable by those persons who have not attended 

 to the fact. But for jt, the casualties to which these 

 important plants are liable during the earlier stages of 

 vegetation, would in many cases operate fatally to the 

 hopes of the farmer. One or two circumstances may 

 be mentioned in which this power of multiplying them- 

 selves at the roots is of the highest advantage in the 

 cultivation of the cereal grains. An insect musca 

 pumilionis is accustomed to deposit its eggs in 

 the very core of the plumule or primary shoot of 

 wheat, so that it is completely destroyed by the larvae. 



Wheat-fly (Musca pvmilionit), In its different itagei. 



VOL. arv. 4* 



