384 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



and it is greatly recommended there as a forage-plant. The Punjab- 

 Wheat with a few other varieties is rust-proof. This is not the place, 

 to enter into details about a plant universally known, unless we may 

 allude to the much overlooked fact, that a light beer can be brewed 

 from wheat; it may therefore suffice merely to mention, that three 

 primary varieties must be distinguished among the very numerous 

 sorts of cultivated wheat: 1. Var. muticum, T. hybernum, L., the 

 Winter- Wheat or Unbearded Wheat; 2. Var. aristatum, T. sestivum, 

 L., the Summer- Wheat or Bearded- Wheat; 3. Var. adhserens, T. 

 Spelta, L., Wheat with fragile axis and adherent grain. Metzger 

 enumerates as distinct kinds of cultivated wheat: 



T. vulgare, Villars, which includes among other varieties the 

 ordinary Spring-Wheat, the Fox- Wheat and the Kentish Wheat. 

 It comprises also the best Italian sorts for plaiting straw -bonnets 

 and straw-hats, for which only the upper part of the stem is used, 

 collected before the ripening of the grain, and bleached through 

 exposure to the sun while kept moistened. 



T. turgidum, Linne, comprising some varieties of White and Red 

 Wheat, also the Clock- Wheat and the Revet- Wheat. 



T. durum, Desfontaines, which contains some sorts of the Bearded 

 Wheat. 



T. Polonicum, Linne, the Polish Wheat, some kinds of which are 

 well adapted for peeled Wheat. 



T. Spelta, Linne, the Spelt-Corn or Dinkel- Wheat, a kind not 

 readily subject to disease, succeeding on soil of very limited 

 fertility, not easily attacked by birds, furnishing a flour of 

 excellence for cakes, also yielding a superior grain for peeled 

 wheat. Fo.r preparing the latter it is necessary to collect the 

 spikes while yet somewhat green, and to dry them in baking- 

 houses. 



T. dicoccum, Schrank, (T. amyleum, Seringe). The Emmer- 

 Wheat. Its varieties are content with and prolific on poor soil, 

 produce excellent starch, are most hardy and not subject to 

 diseases. To this belongs the Arras-Wheat of Abyssinia, where 

 a few other peculiar sorts of wheat are to be found. A large- 

 grained variety of wheat is baked in Persia like rice (Colvill). 



T. monococcum, Linne. St. Peter's Corn, which is hardier than 

 most other wheats; exists in the poorest soils, but produces 

 grains less adapted for flour than for peeled wheat. Indigenous 

 to Serbia, Greece and Turkey, if derived from T. Baeoticum 

 (Boissier). The Champlain- Wheat, recently here introduced by 

 me, yields about 40 fold and seems quite rust- and smut-proof; 

 the crop is heavy; but this variety is preferable for green fodder 

 and hay, the grain carrying too much bran (Hermiston). Dr. 

 Bancroft's experiments in Southern Queensland showed the 

 common Indian Bearded Wheat to be exempt from rust, as well 

 as two beardless varieties from the same part of Asia. On this 



