CHAPTER XVI 



POLISH WHEAT 



Triticum polonicum, L. Sp. PI. ed. ii. 127 (1762). 

 T. levissimum, Haller. Stirp. ind. Helv. 209, No. 1423 (1768). 

 T. glaucum, Moench. Method. 174 (1794). 



Gigachilon polonicum, Seidl. Bercht. und Seidl, Oek. tech. Flora Bohmens, i. 

 425 (1836). 



Deina polonica, Alef. Landw. Fl. 336 (1866). 



POLISH wheat is the most modern of all the races or sub-races of wheat, 

 there being no evidence of its existence before the first half of the seven- 

 teenth century. 



Bauhin and Cherler (Historia Plantarum universalis, ii. 410, 1651) 

 mention a " Triticum speciosum grano longo " obtained from the Botanic 

 Garden at Stuttgart, which probably refers to Polish wheat, but the name 

 T. polonicum is first met with in Hermann's list of plants grown in the 

 Botanic Garden at Leyden during 1681-1686 (P. Hermann, Hortus 

 Academicus Lugduno-Batavus, 609 (1687)). 



The second reference to this wheat occurs in 1690 in Bobart's catalogue 

 published as an appendix in Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britan- 

 nicarum (p. 236), where it is described as " Triticum Poloniae. Triticum 

 majus gluma foliacea," with the note, " This I received first out of Wor- 

 cestershire, where it is sown in the fields." 



Plukenet in 1692 gives an excellent figure of an ear of the wheat in 

 his Phytographia (Plate CCXXXL, Fig. 6) under the title " Triticum 

 Poloniam H. Oxon ab ingeniosissimo Hortulano D. Harrison accepimus," 

 and an ear similar to the one figured exists in Plukenet's Herbarium in 

 the British Museum (Herb. Sloane, vol. xcviii. fol. 124). 



Later in his Almagestum, 1696 (p. 378), Plukenet refers to the wheat 

 as Triticum Polonicum, the name ultimately adopted by Linnaeus. 



Morison (Plantarum Historia Oxoniensis, iii. 175 (1699)) describes it 

 as " Triticum majus longiore grano glumis foliaceis incluso Poloniae 

 dictum," and two specimens, var. levissimum and var. villosum, are found 

 in the Morisonian Herbarium at Oxford. 



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