WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



" Slight varieties of this species are exceed- 

 ingly common in different localities, and are 

 probably attributable to some peculiarities in 

 the mode of culture. The common varieties 

 of winter wheat are distinguished from each 

 other according to the colour of the tunic en- 

 veloping the grain, and the difference observ- 

 able in their chaff. The colours are usually 

 divided into white and red, the latter of these 

 including many different shades of brown. Red 

 wheat is commonly said to be more hardy than 

 white ; it is therefore thought better suited for 

 cultivation in bleak and upland districts. The 

 plant is, however, not so productive as the 

 white, and the flour which it yields is seldom 

 of so desirable a qualit}'." (Baxter's Lib. of 

 Jlgr. p. 640.) 



. 3. Compact wheat (T. conipactum} is allied 

 to the two last-named species, and may be 

 merely a variety of them. In it the internodii 

 of the rachis are very short. It is partially 

 produced in different parts of Europe. "I 

 have received specimens of it," says Professor 

 Low, " from France and Sweden, and have cul- 

 tivated them without observing any change of 

 characters. Whether, however, the charac- 

 ters which distinguish it are sufficiently per- 

 manent to entitle it to be regarded as a species, 

 has not been determined. In the mean time, 

 following the authority of Host (Icones e(. Des. 

 Gram. dust.*), I have placed it amongst the 

 species." 



4. Egyptian, or many-spiked wheat (T. com- 

 positum), PI. 2, c, is distinguished from the 

 others by its branched or compound spike, 

 which no other species tends, under any cir- 

 cumstance, to produce. Its seeds are nume- 

 rous, and the produce abundant. It requires a 

 good climate and a fertile soil, for in unfavour- 

 able situations the branches of the spike are 

 not evolved, and then it assumes the appear- 

 ance of ordinary wheat. It is cultivated in 

 Egypt and the east, as it is in the south of Eu- 

 rope and different parts of Italy. It was known 

 in Germany about 240 years ago, and in France 

 it is said to hav"e been cultivated for about 80 

 years, having been brought from the east un- 

 der the name of wheat of Smyrna. In England 

 it has been partially cultivated as the subject 

 of experiment. It is uncommonly fruitful, and 

 the straw is very strong and tough, whence it 

 has received the name of reed wheat. 



The grains, however, do not yield so large a 

 proportion of flour or meal as any of the other 

 species and their varieties, and the flour is 

 scarcely superior to that obtained from the 

 finest barley. Egyptian wheat will bear great 

 degrees of heat and drought without harm, so 

 that it is found to yield abundantly in situations 

 where other kinds would be greatly injured, if 

 not destroyed ; a circumstance which points it 

 out as admirably adapted to the arid lands 

 whereon it is chiefly cultivated. It would be 

 more cultivated in England, if its form did not 

 cause it to hold the wet at harvest-time, and 

 hence it is very liable to be laid. 



5. Turgid wheat (T. turgidum), PI. 2, d. In 

 this species the corolla is awned, but not the 

 calyx ; the spikes are covered with soft hairs, | 

 and in some varieties change to a dark colour, 

 and the awns drop off as the seeds become . 



1118 



j ripe, in which respect it differs from summer 

 j wheat. It is known in different localities un- 

 der the several names of gray wheat, duck's 

 bill wheat, gray pollard, rivet, pole rivet, cone, 

 ; pendulum, &c. This species grows very tall, 

 I with a thick and rigid stem. The spikes are 

 large and heavy, and nod to one side as the 

 i grain increases in weight. The kinds or minor 

 varieties are distinguished by the farmer from, 

 t!ieir qualities of earlier or later ripening, and 

 greater or less productiveness. One of the 

 most esteemed of these is cone wheat, so named 

 from the conical form of its spike. The tur- 

 gid wheats are productive in corn and straw, 

 but the grain is coarse and hard, and the flour 

 much browner and of an inferior quality. 

 They are chiefly suited to the inferior clays, 

 upon which in England they are extensively 

 cultivated. They are valued under such cir- 

 cumstances for their productiveness in grain 

 and their large growth of straw; but being in- 

 ferior to the winter wheats in the quality of 

 their produce, the cultivation of them is not 

 likely to be extended in that country. 



6. Dark-spiked wheat (T. atratum} is allied 

 to the last species, if it is not rather to be re- 

 garded as a variety of it. It has merely been 

 made the subject of experiment, but not of 

 extended cultivation. It is not superior in 

 productiveness to the turgid wheats in com- 

 mon use. 



7. Barley-like wheat (T. hordieiformc}, so 

 named from its peculiar form, resembling that 

 of barley, seems, like that last described, to be 

 derived from Africa. The florets are awned, 

 and the calyx and corolla become dark as the 

 seeds ripen. But it resembles the class to be 

 next referred to, termed spelt-wheat. 



8. Far (T. zea) is one of the class of spelt- 

 wheats. It is distinguished by the distance of 

 its spikelets from one another. The straw is 

 rigid ; the calyx and corolla adhere closely to 

 the seed, and the spikelets again so closely to 

 the rachis, that they cannot be separated from 

 the rachis without breaking it. This wheat is 

 cultivated in some parts of Europe on inferior 

 soils. 



9. Spelt-wheat (T. spelta), PI. 2,/, is distin- 

 guished like the last by its spikelets being 

 firmly attached to the rachis, and by its rigid 

 calyx and corolla closely enveloping the seed. 

 Spelt is much cultivated in the south of Eu- 

 rope. It is grown extensively in the southern, 

 provinces of France, in Switzerland, Italy, in 

 several parts of Germany, and in Arragon, 

 Catalonia, and other parts of Spain, as well as 

 in the north of Africa, and at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Spelt could be raised in England with 

 facility, and it is probable on soils low in the 

 scale of fertility. It has been cultivated in 

 Scotland, 600 feet above the level of the sea. 

 It is said that spelt-wheat is better adapted 

 than any of the more delicate kinds for culture 

 in Australia, and probably it will be found the 

 more preferable sort in all the more southern 

 wheat-growing countries. 



There are two distinct varieties of spelt, 

 distinguished as the awned and the awnless; 

 the latter is perhaps the most naked of all the 

 cerealia. The grains of this are large, but the 

 ear contains only a small number of them, as 



