342 GENERAL REVIEW. 



being that in H. distichum some of the spikelets are barren, 

 while in others they are fully developed or fertile. Rye is the 

 hardiest of all our cereals, and is found as a wild grass on the 

 granite mountains of the Crimea at altitudes of 5000 to 6000 

 feet ; and Prof. Buckman remarks that its northern habitat ex- 

 plains why it is so much hardier than any variety of Wheat, the 

 southern origin of which is now ascertained. Rye is the least 

 variable of all our cereal crops. 



The varieties of Wheat and other cultivated grain-plants are 

 much greater than is generally supposed. Of Wheat we have 

 two races- the hardy or autumn-sown varieties, and the ordi- 

 nary or spring-sown Wheat. Among the varieties are red and 

 white skinned forms ; and some of these have awned heads, 

 while others have not. In the 'Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1871, 

 p. 1496, 1497, fourteen distinct varieties of Wheat are figured 

 and briefly described, including " Hallett's Pedigree " Wheat, 

 which has heads 6 to 8 inches in length, filled throughout with 

 plump grains of more than average size. This strain is the 

 result of careful selection ; and by good culture and still further 

 selection, with occasional change of soil, we might obtain vari- 

 eties of Wheat still more productive. 



The accidental origin of many of our present varieties of 

 corn is not a little curious, as showing what " great events " 

 sometimes "from trivial causes spring." For instance, some 

 thirty years ago, the Suffolk sort of white Wheat originated 

 with Mr Hardcastle, a farmer near Ipswich, merely by the 

 accident of a very fine ear sticking behind the button of his 

 coat, as he was one day descending the ladder from the mow. 

 Other sorts, as the " Yellow Lammas," the " Devonshire 

 White," and the "Golden Swan" were, it is said, obtained 

 in the same accidental way. The Talavera was introduced 

 from Spain (where it had been discovered and cultivated) by a 

 small quantity of it being left in the store of a quartermaster 

 on the arrival of the troops in England, and given to a gentle- 

 man near Exeter by Colonel Stanley. The different varieties 

 of Oats, too, owe their origin to circumstances no less singular. 

 The Potato Oat, for example one of the most remarkable of 

 any of its species was first observed growing in a field of Pot- 

 atoes in Cumberland, about fifty years ago ; and from the pro- 

 duce of a single stalk, which there sprang up by accident, has 

 been produced the stock now in general cultivation. So with 

 respect to the Hopetoun Oat, discovered in a singular manner 

 by one of the most experienced and intelligent Lothian farmers, 

 Mr Patrick Shirreff. "Having occasion," he says, "frequently to 

 pass the gateway of a field bearing a crop of Potato Oats, in the 



