CHAPTER XX 



CLUB, DWARF, CLUSTER, OR HEDGEHOG WHEAT 



T. compactum, Host. Icon, et descr. Gram. Aust. iv. 4, t. 7 (1809). 



T. vulgare compactum, Alef. Landw. Fl. 327 (1866). 



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



T. tenax, A. II., compactum, Asch. u. Graeb. Syn. ii. 686 (1901). 



THE most ancient of wheats possessing grains loosely invested by the 

 chaff and readily separated by threshing belonged to this race, and were 

 widely grown by Neolithic man in many parts of Europe. 



A remarkable wheat named by Buschan T. compactum, var. globiforme, 

 was common in the Neolithic and Bronze periods, being found in many 

 deposits of these ages in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and 

 Sweden. Only the grains are known ; these are small, more or less hemi- 

 spherical, resembling a miniature coffee-bean in shape, the apex blunt, and 

 furrow well defined ; the average dimensions about 4-6 mm. long, 3-4 

 mm. broad, and 3-3*3 mm. thick. Buschan's wheat appears to resemble 

 the Indian Dwarf wheat T. sphaerococcum (see p. 321) rather than T. 

 compactum. 



More typical examples of T. compactum, with small oval or elongated 

 grains 5*5-7 mm. long, 3-4*5 mm. broad, like those of the common forms 

 of the present day, have only been found in the Neolithic and Bronze Age 

 deposits of Switzerland and Northern Italy. 



Subsequently its cultivation decreased, its place being largely taken 

 by the larger-grained Bread wheat (T. vulgare), which became common 

 in the later prehistoric periods. 



There is no evidence that T. compactum was known to the ancient 

 Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans. 



The small-grained wheat referred to by C. Bauhin in 1623 (Ptnax 

 Theatri botanicf) as Triticum sylvestre creticum, and grown extensively 

 at that time in Crete, was doubtless a form of T. compactum. 



As mentioned later, this wheat is now widely distributed more or less 

 sporadically among the longer-eared wheats, but entire crops of it are 

 rarely seen, a fact which may account for the somewhat remarkable 



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