CHAPTER XVIII 



EGYPTIAN CONE WHEAT 



Triticum pyramidale, mihi. 



A SMALL race which I have seen only from Egypt. It has some of the 

 characters of T. turgidum, but, unlike this, has short straw, characteristic 

 yellow-green culm leaves, pointed grain, and is among the earliest wheats, 

 coming into ear at Reading at the end of May or the first few days in June. 

 The Dwarf wheats collected by W. Schimper in Abyssinia and referred 

 to T. compactum by Kornicke, doubtless belong to this race. 



GENERAL CHARACTERS OF T. pyramidale, mihi. 



The young plants have erect shoots ; the leaf-surface is clothed with 

 soft hairs of equal length, like those of T. dicoccum and T. turgidum. 



The straw is very short, rarely more than 80-100 cm. (32-40 inches) 

 high, solid or hollow with thick walls. 



The culm leaves are generally a yellow-green tint. The ears, which 



usually taper towards the apex, are 

 short and very dense, rarely meas- 

 uring more than 5 or 6 cm., and 

 having a density usually over 40 ; 

 spikelets 20-23. 



The edges of the rachis are 

 fringed with conspicuous white 

 hairs, and there is a frontal tuft at 

 the base of each spikelet. 



3 The spikelets are about 12 mm. 



FIG. 161. Empty glumes of Egyptian Cone long and 12 mm. wide, and often 



ripen 3 or 4 grains in each. 



The empty glumes are strongly keeled from the tip to the base ; the 

 apical tooth in some forms is long and acute, in others short and blunt 

 (Fig. 161). 



The flowering glume bears a long, somewhat slender awn from 9 to 15 

 cm. in length, which is scabrid to the base. 



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