WILD EMMER 179 



in the colour and pubescence of the glumes and rachis (Fig. 119). There 

 is no doubt that some of these forms are hybrids of T. dicoccoides with the 

 cultivated wheats T. durum and T. vulgare, and probably with the wild 

 T. aegilopoides which is often found growing with it. However, investiga- 

 tion of the pure lines established at Reading from ears collected on Mount 

 Hermon indicate that T. dicoccoides is a good species. The larger size of 

 the ear, the form and size of the grain, and the character of the pubescence 

 of the leaves separate it from T. aegilopoides, while the exceptionally easy 

 disarticulation of the ear, the length and form of the spikelets, the striking 

 abundance of hair on the rachis, and the shape and size of the grain 

 distinguish it from cultivated Emmer (T. dicoccum), to which wheat it has 

 the closest affinity. 



T. dicoccoides is an early species coming into ear at Reading about the 

 last week of May when sown in October or November, in this and other 

 respects very closely resembling the cultivated varieties of T. dicoccum 

 from India and Abyssinia. 



GENERAL CHARACTERS OF T. dicoccoides, Korn. 



The coleoptiles are generally deep purple, though in some cases they 

 are colourless or pale green. They are remarkable in possessing four 

 vascular bundles like those of the Indian and Abyssinian forms of T. 

 dicoccum, which I have no doubt have been derived from this wild species. 



The leaves of the young plant are narrow, the first being 2-5-3 mm " 

 the succeeding ones about 4 mm. broad, some- 

 what thick, bluish green in colour, the margins 

 inclined to curve inwards, and the surface 

 clothed with soft velvety hairs similar in char- 

 acter and arrangement to those of T. dicoccum 

 and T. turgidum, arid without the specially long FlG - " 8. Diagrammatic 



. r i transverse sections or 



hairs which are seen on the summits or the young leaves of T. dicoc- 

 ridges of the leaves in T. aegilopoides (Fig. 118). ^fentah' dicoccum > T ' 



The plant in its early stages of growth re- 

 sembles couch grass (Agropyrum repens) in colour and general appearance, 

 and from autumn to late in spring its shoots and leaves are prostrate, lying 

 quite close to the surface of the soil. 



The culm leaves are somewhat rigid and narrow, 4-6 mm. across, 

 with well-defined, longitudinal, hairy ridges on the upper surface ; the 

 auricles are long, often purple, and the sheaths are frequently more or 

 less tinged with purple. 



The sheaths in some forms are quite glabrous, or with a fringe of hairs 

 on the outer edge ; in others they are covered with hairs i mm. or more 

 long. The thickened nodal portion in many forms is from -8 to i cm. long 

 and clothed with deflexed hairs as in T. monococcum. 



