CHAPTER XVII 



RIVET OR CONE WHEAT 



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



T. vulgar e turgidum, Alef. Landw. Fl. 325 (1866). 



T. sativum turgidum, Hackel. Nat. Pfl. ii. 2, 85 (1887). 



THE existence of Rivet wheat in prehistoric times is very doubtful. Heer 

 obtained from the pile-dwelling deposits of Robenhausen (Switzerland) 

 grains and a portion of a dense ear which he attributed to this race, and 

 large grains described as those of T. turgidum have been recorded also 

 from deposits of Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Italy (Castione, Parma) ; 

 owing, however, to the difficulty of distinguishing grains of some of the 

 forms of T. turgidum, T. vulgar e, and T. durum, even in recent material 

 these conclusions must be considered problematical. 



On similar grounds the statement of A. de Candolle, that he recognised 

 grains of this wheat among seeds taken from the sarcophagi of ancient 

 Egyptian tombs, should be accepted with reserve. 



There are no descriptions of wheats among ancient Greek or Latin 

 authors which conclusively point to this race ; it is possible, however, 

 that the " triticum ramosum " of Pliny refers to one or other of the varieties 

 of T. turgidum with branched ears, of which the simple-eared forms 

 would, no doubt, exist. 



The clear separation of T. turgidum from T. vulgare and T. durum 

 does not appear to have been recorded until the first half of the sixteenth 

 century, when Fuchs (1542) and other " herbalists " accurately describe 

 and figure it under the name " Welsch " wheat, i.e. wheat from the 

 Welschland (France and Italy). 



Dodoens also speaks of it as Roman wheat or Triticum romanorum, 

 and distinguishes it from the allied Triticum typhinum (T. durum), 

 ' Typhew " wheat, which he obtained from the Canary Isles and Spain. 



Several varieties of this race of wheat were cultivated somewhat 

 widely in England in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, 

 at which period they were designated Rivet, Cone, or Pollard wheats. 

 During the latter half of the nineteenth century they were less commonly 



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