COMMON BREAD WHEAT 



269 



where there is a " brush " of hairs ; the furrow is usually shallow, and the 

 cheeks on each side of it are convex and plump (Fig. 167). 



The endosperm is flinty, semi-flinty, or completely mealy. 



Measurements of grains taken from the middle of the ear of sixty forms 

 gave the following results : 



In number of its varieties and forms Bread wheat is the richest of the 

 races of wheat. More than 1300 have been collected and studied for many 



DO 1 1U) * t * 1 1 ft I M 



> III *)ii IM IIHftt 



FIG. 167. Grains of Bread wheats (T. vulgare) ; front, back, and side views (nat. size). 



years at Reading. These exhibit an extraordinary diversity of morpho- 

 logical characters, as well as differences in habit of growth and period of 

 ripening, and an almost unbroken series of transitional forms are found 

 connecting the most widely different varieties. 



Long lax ears pass insensibly into the short dense Squareheads, and 

 in the form of the empty glume and the length of the awns of the flowering 

 glumes similar gradation is observed. Even between the Spring wheats 

 with erect young shoots and the prostrate Winter kinds forms are common 

 with young shoots which spread outwards at intermediate angles. 



There is little doubt that T. vulgare is a vast collection of mutants 

 and hybrids, which I regard as having originated from the crossing of 



