EMMER 189 



In the European Emmers the leaf-blades are covered with soft hairs 

 (Fig. 118), and are bluish-green in tint with large fringed auricles. The 

 Indian and Abyssinian forms possess paler yellowish-green culm leaves, 

 which have fewer and shorter hairs on the ridges, and the auricles are 

 frequently quite glabrous. 



The leaf-sheaths and auricles of most Emmers are pinkish. The 

 plants tiller moderately. The straw is strong and somewhat slender ; 

 in some varieties it is hollow, in others the upper internode is solid. Most 

 European forms reach a height of 100-125 cm - (about 39-50 inches) ; 

 the Indian and Abyssinian forms are rarely taller than 55-65 cm. (about 

 22-26 inches) ; the full-grown culm leaves have a breadth of about 

 16 mm. 



The ears, which are white, red, or black, are usually bearded, erect, and 

 laterally compressed, although in a few kinds the cross section of the ear 

 is almost square. Those of different varieties vary in length from 5 or 6 

 cm. to over 10 cm., with fifteen to thirty or more spikelets ; the density 

 varies between wide limits (0 = 24-40). 



The rachis is flattened and smooth, more or less hairy along the margins 

 with a tuft in front between the empty glumes ; each individual segment 

 is narrow at the base, widening upwards in some cases to about twice the 

 breadth at the top. In some forms it is fragile and the grains firmly 

 enclosed in the glumes ; in others of the Indo-Abyssinian sub-race the 

 rachis is tough and not so readily disarticulated, and in these the grains 

 are more loosely invested by the chaff. 



In the " spelt " forms the rachis becomes disarticulated at the narrowest 

 basal end of each internode, each separate spikelet carrying with it the 

 internodal portion immediately below it (Fig. 124). 



The spikelets, which are more or less closely imbricate on the rachis, 

 are oval, from 5 mm. to 8 mm. across, and twice as long, containing three 

 or four flowers, the two lower ones usually producing grain, those above 

 being rudimentary. 



The empty glumes are oval and boat-shaped, narrow towards the apex, 

 seven-nerved, with a prominent keel running from base to apex and 

 ending in a straight or curved tooth, which varies in length and form in 

 different varieties : in one form the empty glume has a long awn (Fig. 

 125). The outer half is somewhat flat and about twice as wide as the 

 inner half of the glume ; upon it is a lateral nerve, which divides the outer 

 half almost equally, and ends near the base of the apical tooth, sometimes 

 in a short point. 



The flowering glumes are boat-shaped, rounded on the back, with 

 nine to eleven nerves, but without a keel ; they are usually terminated 

 by scabrid three-angled awns from 5 to 14 cm. in length. The awn of the 

 lowest flowering glume of a spikelet is longest, that of the second slightly 



