CHAPTER XXI 



' INDIAN DWARF WHEAT 



T. sphaerococcum, mihi. 



THIS race, which I received from India and parts of Persia, is referred 

 by Howard to T. compactum. Host, but the latter so far as I am aware does 

 not occur in India. 



T. sphaerococcum resembles T. compactum only in the possession of 

 a short dense ear ; the straw, however, is stouter, the leaves shorter, more 

 erect and rigid, and the glumes different in form and texture. The grain 

 also is very small and the typical form is of characteristic hemispherical 

 shape, resembling that of the prehistoric T. compactum, var. globiforme, of 

 Buschan. 



When grown side by side with numerous forms of T. compactum from 

 all parts of the world, its specific differences are strikingly evident. 



It is cultivated in the Punjab and Central and United Provinces of 

 India, and I obtained examples of it among Kallak ( = little head) wheat 

 from Persia. Doubtless the same race is referred to by Duthie and Fuller 

 in Field and Garden Crops of the North- West Provinces of Oudh (1882) 

 as " a curious round-berried wheat named ' Paighambari,' apparently 

 an introduction from Arabia," but I have been unable to trace its occur- 

 rence in the latter country. 



This race resists drought well and, according to Howard, is generally 

 grown with inundation moisture and little rain. The Indian examples 

 are resistant to Yellow Rust at Reading. 



GENERAL CHARACTERS OF T. sphaerococcum, mihi. 



The young plants have upright shoots ; young leaves as in T. vulgare. 



At Reading the straw is short, averaging not more than 65-70 cm. 

 (24-28 inches), but in India it sometimes reaches a height of 3 feet or 

 more. It is hollow, very stiff and erect with 4 to 5 internodes, which in 

 some varieties are pinkish. The successive internodes of ten well-grown 

 stems measured from below upwards -5 cm., 5-2 cm., 13-0 cm., 17-7 cm., 



321 Y 



