182 THE TRUE GRASSES. 



a. Tr. sat. Spelta (Tr. Spelta L.), Spelt* (Fig. 101). 

 There are awned and awnless, hairy and smooth- 

 spiked, white, gray-blue, and reddish varieties. 

 One of the oldest grains. It was anciently the 

 chief grain in Egypt and Greece, and was culti- 

 vated everywhere throughout the Roman Empire 

 and distributed through its colonies. Its culture 

 has continually decreased until, at present, it has 

 disappeared from Egypt and Greece, and has be- 

 come very rare in Italy and France ; and even in 

 S. Germany and Switzerland, where it is still the 

 most cultivated, it is continually becoming rarer. 

 It is yet important in N. Spain. The winter beard- 

 less Spelt, a white-spiked, awnless variety, is the 

 most profitable. Spelt possesses undoubted ad- 

 vantage over the naked wheats only when grown 

 upon poor soil, in small fields and with moderate 

 culture ; its demands are less, it is more certain, 

 liable to fewer diseases, and not at all subject to 

 the attacks of birds. Upon better soil and with 

 reasonable cultivation the returns are better from 

 common wheat. 



b. Tr. sat. dicoccum ( Tr. dicoccum Schrank) (Fig. 102). 

 Always awned ; spikes broader on the two-ranked 

 side, narrower on the imbricated one. Cultivated 

 from the most ancient times (Lake dwellings of 

 Robenhausen), but always more sparingly than 

 Spelt, and at present only in S. Germany, Switzer- 

 land, Spain, Servia, and Italy. It is a summer 

 grain, and is used mainly as mush and for making 

 starch. The best kind is the so-called Bice-spelt 

 (Beisdinkd). 



c. Tr. sat. tenax. This falls into four poorly charac- 

 terized sub-races which in many characters over- 

 lap, and each of which, in turn, possesses numerous 

 varieties, according to the awns, hairiness, and color 

 of the spikes. 



* The illustrations of the spikes of the Cereals are taken from the 

 works of Mull-Guyot in the " Encyclopedic d 'Agriculture. " 



