168 . THE RYE CROP. 



passage with all the principal kinds of grain (" take wheat, 

 and barley, and beans, and lentils, and 'fitches' and put 

 them in a vessel, and make bread thereof'"'). Although 

 the conclusions of Dr. Royle point rather to the species of 

 Triticum Spelta as the " kussemuth " of the Scriptures, he 

 admits it to be open to farther investigation. Loudon 

 gives its native place as Crete; however, this is very doubt- 

 ful, as Aristotle makes no mention of it, which he would 

 have done, had it been known in Crete. Indeed, it is not 

 mentioned by any of the Greek or Roman agricultural 

 authors, with the exception of Pliny, who makes mention 

 of a plant called " Secale," which the Taurini inhabitants 

 of a district of Cis- Alpine Gaul, at the foot of the Alps 

 (Piedmont) cultivated and used both as food for them- 

 selves and their cattle. He does not speak very favour- 

 ably of it, save that it yielded large crops. He tells us, 

 however, that the inhabitants of the district called it 

 " Asia/' from which it would appear probable that it came 

 originally from Asiatic Tartary, being brought by the 

 hordes of roving barbarians, who passed through the 

 northern to ravage the richer southern parts of Europe. 

 This opinion is confirmed by Karl Koch, who found it 

 growing undoubtedly wild on the mountains of the Crimea, 

 especially round the village of Dhsimil, on a granitic for- 

 mation, at an elevation of 5000 to 6000 feet above the 

 sea level. In such places its ears were not more than 1^ 

 to 2 inches long. 



Rye belongs to the order Graminese (Grasses), and con- 

 sists of a single species, the Secede 1 cereale, of which some 

 half-dozen varieties (?) are known in cultivation. . 



The botanical characters of rye readily enable it to be 

 distinguished from wheat or barley ; though, to an inex- 



1 According to Ainsworth, the name secale is derived from the Celtic name 

 segal; by others its derivation is thought to be from the Latin scco, to cut, 

 in contradistinction to the leguminous plants, or those gathered by hand. 



