January 2jth, iSgS.] PROCEEDINGS. xix 



number of awns than in the somewhat muticous or short 

 awned wheat. We hear that the experiments, carried out under 

 the supervision of distinguished botanists and agriculturists, 

 both in England and on the Continent, confirmed M. Fabre's 

 discovery, and yet now the .-Egilops is not so much considered 

 the parent of wheat as a wild Triticum of Asia Minor and Meso- 

 potamia, viz. : TriticuiiL mo7iococcu}n L., which Boissier [Flora 

 Orientalis^ vol. V. p. 673) also indicates from Greece. It must 

 be confessed that, at first sight, this wheat grass has more the 

 appearance of the cultivated form, with the more regular spike, 

 though longer awned than the cultivated T. vulgare. Another 

 cereal, known as T. polonicum^ has, however, long awns ; so, 

 indeed, has T. duruni^ with very broad leaves and elongate, hard 

 grains. 



In the just published Flora of India (vol. VII.^ p. 367), Sir 

 J. D. Hooker quotes Murray's article in Watts' Dictionary of the 

 Economic Products of India^ amongst other references, as to T. 

 7?io7iococcum L. being the origin of all wheat cultivated in India. 

 Ten varieties are signalised as being cultivated in that country, 

 including T. spelta L. and T. composiiwn L. This last has been 

 popularly known as Mummy Wheat, but there can be no doubt 

 that no seeds found in the Egyptian tombs have germinated. 



The chief point of difference between the genera Triticwn 

 SindyEgilops (nmiQd. in Bentham and Hooker's Genera Fiantarum^ 

 vol. III., p. 1204) consists in the glumes of the latter never 

 being keeled or carinate. T. monococcum in its wild state bears 

 a certain superficial resemblance to Hordeiun or Barley ; the 

 difference between the two genera is as follows : — 



Triticum L. Hordeiim L. 



Spikelets with two or more Spikelets in threes, the side 



flowers, all perfect. ones usually barren, none 



with more than one per- 

 fect flower, 



M. Alphonse de Candolle, in his Origin of Cultivated Plants 

 (PP- 354-37o)» gives an interesting dissertation on the origin of 

 wheat, and has collated a number of facts well worth perusal, 

 the upshot being that he considers all wheats emanated from a 



