COMMON BREAD WHEAT 267 



and beardless forms ; a few Japanese and Australian forms are quite 

 awnless, but most of the so-called beardless wheats have short awns on the 

 flowering glumes of the upper spikelets of the ear, and in a few forms fine 

 short awns of uniform length are found on all the flowering glumes. 



In most varieties the ears are flattened and broadest across the face ; 

 sometimes the width across the 2-ranked side and the face is the same, 

 but I have met with none in which the width of the 2-ranked side is 

 uniformly greater than that of the face, as in many forms of T. durum and 

 T. turgidum. 



The length of the ear varies from 6 to 18 cm. (about 2-5-7 inches), with 

 an average of 20 spikelets per ear, the density varying from 14 or 15 to 

 36 or more per 10 cm. of rachis. 



The rachis is tough and smooth, and fringed with short hairs along its 

 margins, with a few hairs immediately below the base of each spikelet. 



The spikelets are 5- to Q-flowered ; near the middle of the ear they not 

 infrequently ripen 4 or 5 grains, but those near the base of the ear are 

 often barren or contain i or 2 grains only ; generally in the apical spikelets 

 only i or 2 grains are developed. 



The spikelets are 10-15 mm. long, 9-18 mm. across the face, and 4-5 

 mm. thick. The empty glumes are glabrous, pubescent, or villose, 

 creamy-white, canary-yellow, or various shades of red, brown, or blue- 

 black ; those of the lateral spikelets are 6-n mm. long, unsymmetrical, 

 3-5 mm. from the midrib to the outer edge, terminating in a tooth, which 

 in the beardless forms is short and usually blunter than that of T. durum, 

 and in the bearded form often prolonged into a slender awn from i to 3 cm. 

 or more in length. The midrib is commonly prominent only in the upper 

 half, but in some cases there is a well-developed keel running from the 

 apex to the .base of the glume ; the various forms of the empty glume 

 and their apical teeth are illustrated in Figs. 165 and 166. 



The flowering glumes are thin and pale, rounded on the back with 

 7-11 nerves. In bearded wheats the awns are from 5 to 10 cm. long, trique- 

 trous, scabrid, and persistent, and in some Chinese forms very fine, in 

 others, especially Persian and Indian sorts, stout and brittle. They are 

 generally of the same tint as the glume, namely, reddish- or yellowish- white, 

 black or dark brown awns being of exceptional rarity in T. vulgare, though 

 frequent in other races. The awns are usually straight or only slightly 

 curved, but in some Asiatic wheats they are tortuose or bent into the form 

 of a hook or loop (i, Fig. 179). A peculiar form is illustrated in Figs. 

 179 and 217. 



The grains are white, yellow, pale orange, or varying shades of red or 

 brown, the colour being most readily determined in those with mealy, 

 opaque endosperm. 



They are generally plump, somewhat broad and bluntish at the apex, 



