8 A STUDY OF WHEAT. 



is troubled with rust, smut, the weevil, the Hessian fly and wheat 

 moth. 



Wheat retains its vitality only from three to seven years, and 

 the stories, so generally believed, of wheat being found in Egyptian 

 mummies, thousands of years old, capable of growth, etc., are now 

 discredited. It is believed the cunning Arabs hide these seeds 

 there to deceive the unsuspecting and susceptible traveler, for very 

 recently there have been found Indian corn, and dahlia tubers, ex- 

 hibited by these sons of the desert as grains and roots which for 

 centuries have been quietly sleeping, waiting only for moisture and 

 sunlight to awaken them to life and growth. Tis fortunate for the 

 happiness of our poor Arabs that they are entirely ignorant of the 

 fact that Indian corn and dahlia tubers were not known until after 

 the discovery of America. 



Before we take up the minute structure of wheat itself, let us 

 study the microscopic structure of the plant, for every part shows 

 beauties under this aid to the eye, which, without it, would never be 

 mistrusted to exist. Every part of the stem, the root, and head, 

 and seed, would, of itself, form a study, but with limited time and 

 space we can at most only hope to obtain a general idea of the mi- 

 nute structure of each part. Many interesting questions could be- 

 answered here, were we not intending only to give the microscopic 

 structure, as: How does wheat grow? How does it assimilate the- 

 elements, even minerals, of the soil, transforming material so unlike 

 itself and storing away its starch in the tip of the root at one end 

 and in the center of the kernel at the other? How is moisture 

 gathered from the soil and carried to the extreme end of the head? 

 All these and similar questions are found well explained in our 

 vegetable physiologies, and to these works are our readers referred, 

 while we proceed to give the results of original work, commencing 

 first with the structure of the straw or stem. 



If we take a wheat straw that has been soaking in water for 

 twenty-four or thirty-six hours, and with a very sharp razor make a 

 cross section and examine under a microscope, magnifying from 75 

 to 100 diameters, we will be able to form a very correct idea of the 

 structure of the stem. Only a part of such a section is shown in 

 figure I. This being but a small segment of the circle, which, when 

 completed, forms the entire circumference of the straw. The 

 whole structure is made up of vegetable cells, only many are modi- 



