198 BUCKWHEAT 



erect. The leaves are triangular and two or three inches broad, 

 The stem varies in color from green to purple. 



The flowers on ordinary buckwheat are small, but borne in com- 

 pact masses at the end of small branches. However, in one species, 

 the so-called India-wheat, the flower clusters are small and more 

 scattered at the nodes along the principal stems. The flowers are 

 of two types, one with long stamens and short styles, and the other 

 with short stamens and long styles. Each plant produces only one 

 type, but when the seed from either kind of plant is sown, hoth forms 

 are produced in about equal numbers. This peculiar arrangement 

 may assist in cross-fertilization. 



The Buckwheat Grain. The grain varies in color from silver- 

 grey to brown or black. The outer cover or hull corresponds to the 

 outer bran of wheat or corn, but differs in being much thicker and free 

 from the starchy endosperm. The hull readily .splits along the 

 edges, and some care must be observed in threshing dry buckwheat 

 not to thus hull too many of the grains. Old seed in dry storage will 

 sometimes hull more or less. The endosperm is soft rather than 

 hard, as in corn or wheat. The legal weight of buckwheat is 

 ordinarily 48 pounds per bushel, though in different States it varies 

 from 40 to 56 pounds. 



In composition, the buckwheat endosperm is more starchy than 

 wheat or corn, and is also low in fat content. In milling, the flour 

 produced is very low in protein (six to seven per cent) and fat, but 

 the middlings, which contain the germ, are distinguished by ex- 

 tremely high protein and fat content. The middlings are highly 

 valued as stock feed. 



The following data compiled by Hunt give average com- 

 position * : 



Essential Ingredients of Buckwheat and Its Products 



Grain Flour Middlings Hulls 



* Hunt, T. F. : Cereals in America, p. 402. 



