236 



XXV. 



Crops and experimentation connected therewith. Corn crops 

 and other Food-grains. Root and tuber plants for food 

 and forage. Grasses and leguminous forage crops. Mea- 

 dows and Pastures. Hay. Ensilage. 



Dr. MARION I. NEWBIGIN. Evolution and spread of food-plants. 



London, Macmillan and Co. (1910). Rev. Nature, August 

 n, 1910, n. 2128, vol. 84. 



Dr. Marion Newbigin tells of the evolution and spread of food- 

 plants with an epical directness and unity of plan. An episode in 

 the development of Transatlantic commercialism such as the 

 transportation of Smyrna figs to California becomes in her hands 

 a wonderfully impressive illustration of the working of the scien- 

 tific spirit. 



STAFF OTTO. The History of the Wheats. -- (Supplement to the 

 Journ. of the Board of Agric., vol. XVII, n. 3, London, June 1910. 

 Pp. 71-83). 



About the much discussed question of the origin of wheat it 

 is explained, that what is usually understood when we speak of 

 " Wheat " comprises a multitude of races, mostly of economic 

 interest, which fall under one of the three groups of the Soft, the 

 Hard, and the so-called English wheats; or, to use their Latin 

 designations, the Vulgare, the Durum, and the Turgidum Wheats. 



To them might be added as less common and economically 

 less important wheats, those of the Compactum and Polonicum 

 group, popularly known as "Dwarf" and " Polish " wheats. With 

 the exception of the last, all these together form, in the system 

 devised by the prominent agrostologist, Eduard Hackel, the sub- 

 species tenax of the species Triticum sativum. They are charac- 

 terised as the name tenax indicates, by having spikes with a tough 

 spindle which, when mature, does not break up into joints and 

 grains easily falling out from their husks or glumes. To these 



