[Reprinted from THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, January, 1913.] 



A GRAIN OF WHEAT 1 



BY R. CHODAT 



PEOFESSOB OP BOTANY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA, SWITZERLAND 



PEOPLES truly rich are those who cultivate cereals on a large scale. 

 Scores of investigators in all civilized countries devote themselves 

 unceasingly to a problem of great social significance, viz., the increase of 

 the national wealth through progress in agriculture. The least dis- 

 covery in this field, whatever the political journals may say, is more im- 

 portant for a country than a change of the party in power. For it is 

 the history of discoveries and inventions in the domain of nature, as 

 well as in the intellectual field that constitutes the real history of 

 civilizations. 



Thus the modern improvements in the industry of milling in con- 

 nection with better transportation facilities have helped to provide 

 better bread for all classes and have rendered famine impossible in the 

 Europe of to-day. 



Is it then any wonder that since the most remote antiquity germi- 

 nating wheat has been the symbol of mysterious and hidden life, that in 

 their religious ceremonies the ancients attached so much importance to 

 cereals offered on the altar, that our modern artists, putting aside the 

 petty themes of political events, have glorified the beauty and nobility 

 of harvests, the poetry and mystery of sowing, in justly renowned 

 paintings? Roty's admirable sower on the French coins, who symbol- 

 izes the value of this idea, shows us the highest art seeking its inspira- 

 tion at the very source of civilization the culture of wheat. 



I do not wish to overtax your attention or indulge overmuch in 

 scientific pedantry by enumerating to you, together with their botanical 

 characteristics, the different kinds of wheat which have been and are still 

 cultivated. I shall merely give you as much as is essential for my pur- 

 pose. The most competent botanists in this field agree in recognizing 

 at least three species of wheat : 



1. Einkorn (Triticum monococcum") . 



2. Polish wheat (Triticum polonicum). 



3. Wheat (Triticum sativum). 



These distinctions are based not only on morphological characters, 

 but also on a character which is accepted on good grounds as usually 



1 Presented before the General Meeting of the Societe" des Arts, Geneva 

 Switzerland. Translated from the French by Maude Kellerman. 



VOL. LxxxiL-3. 272700 M:\:7V 



