2 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



" ^Egilops ; " and it is somewhat singular that, in recent 

 times, the speculations as to the origin of wheat take pre- 

 cisely this direction of those of ancient times. Of modern 

 savans who have paid attention to this department of agri- 

 cultural science, M. Esprit Fabre, of Agde, in France, has 

 devoted considerable time to its investigation. Of the 

 grasses known as the ^Egilops, to which, like the ancients, 

 M. Fabre traces the origin of the wheat plant, there are 

 three species, the ^Egilops triundalis, ^Egilops Ovata, and 

 ^E. triarestata. To these three a fourth is sometimes added, 

 and which is called ^E. triticoides, from its possessing some 

 of the triticoid characteristics of wheat. We say this i? 

 sometimes added to the list of species of ^Egilop grasses. 

 but as M. Fabre believes that he has shown that this fourth 

 is derived from the ^Egilops ovata, the classes may be 

 taken as three in number only. But although M. Fabre 

 believes that the result of his experiments with plants of 

 the species ^Egilops ovata was a plant to which the name 

 of -^Eg. triticoides was given, and from the seeds of which 

 he ultimately, by sowing them in succession for twelve 

 generations, obtained a " true wheat plant ; " other author- 

 ities take exception to this decision, and maintain that 

 the plant ^Egilops triticoides was not a distinct species, or 

 a new plant, but that it was merely a hybrid plant, which 

 possibly resulted by a union between a plant of the com- 

 mon wheat, and a grass of the species /Egilops. This in- 

 genious idea was first broached by M. Godron, and was 

 followed up by a series of most elaborate investigations 

 which ultimately established the fact that the ^Igilops triti- 

 coides was a hybrid, and that it was easy to understand 

 how its cultivation resulted in bringing it to a true wheat ; 

 for, as M. Godron says, hybrids, " when fertile, tend to 

 return, after a certain number of generations, to one of the 

 two types which has given them birth." Space prevents 

 us from going farther into this question of the origin of the 

 wheat plant we can only refer the reader desirous to pur- 

 sue the matter, to the Journal of Agriculture (No. 82, p. 139), 

 where a resurn6 of the points involved will be met with, 



