CHAPTER XI 



SMALL SPELT 



T. monococcum, L. Sp. PI. 86 (1753). 



Nivieria monococcum, Ser. Cer. Eur. in, 114 (1841). 



T. vulgare bidens, Alef. Landw. FL 334 (1866). 



T. monococcum, B. cereale, Asch. u. Graeb. Syn. ii. 702 (1901). 



SMALL Spelt, sometimes termed one-grained Wheat, St. Peter's corn, 

 or Einkorn, is one of the most primitive of the cereals, exhibiting little 

 differentiation from the wild T. aegilopoides from which it has no doubt 

 been derived. 



Its cultivation was established in prehistoric times, and evidence 

 points to its having been one of the chief wheats grown in Mid Europe 

 in the Neolithic period. Grains of it have been discovered in Hungary 

 in the Stone Age deposits of Fels5-Dobzsa, the Neolithic subterranean 

 dwellings and store-rooms of Lengyel, and in the cave deposits of Aggetelek ; 

 they have also been found in deposits of similar date in Bosnia and 

 Denmark. 



Heer states that a single ear now lost was obtained from the pile- 

 dwellings, referred to the same era, at Wangen in Switzerland. Car- 

 bonised grains dug up by Schliemann at Hissarlik on the site of ancient 

 Troy (3000-2500 B.C.) have been attributed to Small Spelt, and specimens 

 belonging to the Bronze Age have been found at Toszeg in Hungary. 



The grains of Neolithic Age are somewhat smaller than those of T. 

 monococcum of the present day, resembling the caryopses of the wild 

 T. aegilopoides of Serbia and Macedonia. It is possible that prehistoric 

 man in Mid and South-Eastern Europe first selected for cultivation the 

 wild species of this region and at the early period mentioned had made 

 little progress with its improvement. The increased size of the grain 

 of some of the varieties of this race at present cultivated may be the result 

 of a long period of selection applied to the European plant ; on the other 

 hand, it is perhaps more likely that the modern forms of T. monococcum 

 have been derived from the larger robust variety T. aegilopoides, var. 

 Thaoudar of Asia Minor. 



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