SMALL SPELT 175 



In general facies T. monococcum closely resembles the wild T. 

 aegilopoides ; it differs from the prototype in having somewhat broader, 

 closer-set, and larger ears, and grains of slightly larger size ; its awns are, 

 however, shorter, being usually not more than 4-8 cm. long, while those 

 of the wild species reach a length of 10-11 cm. 



The leaves are covered with very short hairs (b, Fig. in), there being 

 no long ones on the ridges as in T. aegilopoides. The leaf-sheaths, auricles, 

 and rachis of the ear in the cultivated plant are much less hairy, and the 

 empty glumes broader with rounded and more membranous margins than 

 those of T. aegilopoides. The terminal keel tooth of the empty glume of 

 the latter is generally bent outwards ; in most varieties of T. monococcum 

 it is either straight or curved slightly inwards. 



VARIETIES OF T. monococcum, L. 



1 . Glumes pale reddish-yellow or brownish, glabrous, shining. 



var. vulgare, Korn. 



2. Glumes pale yellow, scabrid, dull . . . var. flavescens, Korn. 



3. Glumes reddish-brown or brownish-yellow, pubescent, dull. 



var. Hornemanni, Korn. 



Glumes pale reddish-yellow or brownish, glabrous, shining. 



T. monococcum, var. vulgare, Korn. Handb. d. Getr. i. 112 (1885). 



This variety (2, Fig. 117) is a winter form of slow growth, but often ripens 

 grain at Reading in the same season, even when sown as late as the beginning 

 of March. 



When sown in autumn the ears appear in the last week of the following June 

 or the first week in July. 



The plants tiller extensively, producing 10-15 straws per plant when the 

 grains are sown 6 inches apart in rows 6 inches asunder. 



The coleoptile is purple, the young foliage leaves narrow, about 4 mm. 

 across, bluish-green, and lying close to the surface of the ground in winter ; 

 the fully developed culm leaves are 6 to 8 mm. across, of a yellowish-green tint. 

 The leaf-sheaths are generally smooth, the lower ones and the fringed auricles 

 usually pinkish. 



The straw is very short, from 65 to 75 cm. (about 25-30 inches) in height, 

 slender, elastic, and hollow, with thin walls, the nodes covered with fine more 

 or less adpressed and deflexed hairs. 



The ears are thin, smooth, and reddish-yellow, with more or less polished 

 surfaces, the keel and veins of the glumes being non-scab rid or nearly so ; they 

 average 5-6 cm. in length, about 8 mm. in width, and 3-4 mm. across the face 

 of the spikelets, each of which usually contains only one small compressed 

 caryopsis. D = about 54. 



Only the flowering glume of the lower flower has an awn, 3-8 cm. long, that 

 of the second flower being awnless. 



