CHAPTER XXIII 



THE ORIGIN AND RELATIONSHIPS OF THE RACES OF WHEAT 



ALTHOUGH the cultivation of wheat has not been traced to Paleolithic 

 times, stores of its ears or grain belonging to Neolithic man have been 

 discovered in many parts of Central and Eastern Europe, and the fact 

 that among these are specimens of several kinds suggests that its cultiva- 

 tion even at that period was of considerable antiquity. To the ancient 

 nations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the origin of wheat was as much a 

 mystery as it is to-day. The Greeks ascribed the gift of this precious 

 grain to Demeter, whom the Romans identified with their goddess Ceres. 



Among the ancient Chinese, wheat was a grant from heaven, and the 

 institution, retained to recent times, of the annual sowing of the five 

 grains wheat, rice, sorghum, millet, and soy by the Emperors of 

 China was introduced by the semi-mythical Shen-nung or Chin-nong. 



The wild prototypes from which the cultivated wheats have been 

 derived have been diligently sought, and records of their discovery exist 

 in all ages. 



According to the legend of Diodorus Siculus (i. 4) the Egyptian 

 goddess Isis discovered " wheat (771730?) and barley growing promiscu- 

 ously about the country along with other plants, and unknown to man- 

 kind." 



The country to which the reference alludes was Nysa, " a high 

 mountain of Phoenicia far away " (Diodorus i. 15), possibly the region 

 of Northern Palestine in which Wild Emmer (T. dicoccoides] is found at 

 the present day. 



The Chaldean priest Berosus mentions the occurrence of wild wheat 

 (nvpos) in the land of the Babylonians between the Tigris and Euphrates 

 (Syncellus, Frag. Hist. Grace, vol. ii. p. 416), and Strabo states that, 

 according to Aristobulus, " a wild corn similar to wheat (Trvpos) grows 

 in the land of Musicanus," the " most southern part of India " (Strabo, 

 Rerum Geog. lib. xv. t. i. p. 124; t. ii. pp. 776 and 1017, Amstel. 1707). 



In more recent times Andre" Michaux in 1787 saw " Spelt " wheat 

 wild in Persia, north of Hamadan (Lamk. Ency. ii. 560), and Olivier 

 (Voy. dans Vemp. othoman, vol. vi. p. 338, 1807) says that when he was 



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