34 BRITISH CEREALS. 



Glumes medium. 



Spikelets erect. Grain notched across base. Rachis 

 stout, hairs long and numerous. H. erectum. 

 (Goldthorpe type). 

 Spikelets nodding. Grain not notched across, but 

 sloped at base. H. nutans. 



Rachilla short and stout with short woolly hairs. 



Chevalier type. 

 Rachilla long and slender, with long upright hairs. 

 Nottingham type. 



Cultivated Wheat is quite as old as the Stone Age, and its 

 origin is very doubtful, but Hackel divides the genus Triticum into 

 two sections, JEgilops and Sitopyros, and through two of the 

 twelve species of the former, JE. ovata and M. triuncialis, obtains 

 the transitions into the latter, which is made up entirely of our 

 cultivated Wheats. Of these there are three main types, 

 which are generally given specific rank — Triticum monococcum, 

 T. polonicum, and T. sativum. 



One-grained Wheat, T. monococcum, better known as Small 

 Spelt, grows apparently wild on the hills of Thessaly, and ranges 

 from Achaia to Mesopotamia. Thriving in stony places and 

 giving good meal, though mostly used as mush and fodder, it 

 is cultivated in the mountainous districts of Spain, France, and 

 Eastern Europe. It was grown in the Stone Age at Aggtelek in 

 Hungary, and also by the Swiss lake dwellers. A specimen was 

 discovered in a brick of the pyramid of Dashur, showing that it 

 was known to the Egyptians — to say nothing of the wall paintings 

 — and it was also found by Schliemann among the ruins of Hissar- 

 lik, which he considered to be Troy. It is infertile when crossed 

 with T. sativum, so that there are some real grounds for giving it 

 a species to itself. 



Polish Wheat, T. polonicum, when crossed with T. sativum, 

 is satisfactorily fertile, and seems to be merely a cultivated 

 variety. It is grown in Spain, where, notwithstanding its name, 

 it apparently originated, in Italy, in Eastern Europe, and in 

 Abyssinia. From its slender grain it has been called Giant 

 Rye, and it is readily recognisable by its almost solid straw and 



