No. 133.] 281 



Wheat, or in the latin triticum, in geiman weizen, in Spanish 

 trigo, in italian grano. The oxdiuaiy uses of wheat are generally 

 known, but the very best methods of making good bread of it, 

 are by no means so extensively known or practised. The vernii- 

 celli, the semoule made of it, sustain immense numbers of people, 

 while the greater portion of the human race know nothing of them. 



Wheat, subjected to cultivation from time immemorial, and 

 spread over a large portion of the globe, has more than any other 

 plant felt the influence of the causes, which have a tendency to 

 cause variations in vegetables to such an extent, that v-.e have to 

 day hundreds of varieties, and these too, every day changing and 

 subdividing under our own eyes. Their great number, their want 

 of fixed character, and above all the confusion in the nomenclature , 

 make it very difficult to determine with any precision their var- 

 ieties. 



Did there exist originally one or many species of wheat 7 Are 

 those original types still preserved in the wheats we now have? 

 Can we find which they were? These questions will, probably, 

 never be resolved. Linnaeus, whose classification embraced all 

 the plants known at his time, admitted seven diflferent kinds of 

 wheat, then cultivated ; five of them bald and two not. About 

 the same time Haller made efforts to fix the varieties and establish 

 their nomenclature. But the first important work on the varieties 

 of wheat, was executed by M. Tessier, about the year 1780, who 

 thus rendered the most real service to our farmers. This work 

 was for a long time considered a classical one. More recently 

 Mr. Seringe, director of the botanic garden of Lyons, has prod need 

 esteemed works on the subject, especially on the cereals of Swit- 

 zerland, and latterly M. Devaux, one of our most distinguished 

 botanists, has made new and profound researches, on the varieties 

 of wheat, the results of which have been published in the trans- 

 acticus of the society of agriculture, sciences and the arts of Ant- 

 werp. This is one of the most useful sources of information on 

 wheat. There have been many other works published on the 

 subject ; we ought however to mention particularly, that of Mctz- 

 ger, a friend of Dr. Endt-rlin, a member of the Farmer's Club of 

 • the American Institute, who speaks of M. M«tzgtr in the highest 



