36 BRITISH CEREALS. 



It will be seen we divide the varieties of T. sativum into 

 those in which the rachis breaks off at the notches when thrashed 

 and those in which it does not. The former includes only T. spelta, 

 grown as a crop in Northern Spain and hardly anywhere else, 

 and T. dicoccum, cultivated in Southern Europe from Spain to 

 Servia. Both these, like T. monococcum, differ from the others, 

 in the grain, though free, not falling out of the ear during the 

 thrashing. 



Hard Wheat is the flinty variety yielding the very glutinous 

 flour which is made up into macaroni, vermicelli, etc., as being 

 better adapted for such strong pastes than any other, and pro- 

 bably was the cause of their tubular shape. It is almost con- 

 fined to the Mediterranean region, and is the principal grain of 

 Spain and Northern Africa. It has a solid straw and long, 

 bristly awns, these awns in some of its varieties being jet-black. 



Rivet Wheat is another Mediterranean species, but unlike 

 the foregoing the flour is much more starchy than glutinous. 

 It grows tall, with thick quadrangular spikes, and broad velvety 

 leaves, and in this country is grown only on a few clay lands in 

 the south, though for some reason Hackel and other Germans 

 call it English Wheat. Egyptian or Miracle Wheat, T. com- 

 positum, often described as a variety, has the spikes branched. 



Dwarf Wheat, T. compachim, is the Hedgehog Wheat of the 

 lake dwellers, a very old-established variety still cultivated in 

 certain parts of Germany, in Turkestan, and elsewhere. Short 

 and sturdy, it survives a good deal of rough treatment by the 

 weather and otherwise. It was at one time grown a little in 

 England, but was abandoned for something more profitable. In 

 fact, of all these Wheats, with a few exceptions not worth men- 

 tioning, the only one seen in our fields is T. vulgare, beardless and 

 bearded, in its hundreds of agricultural strains. 



The genera of Oats and Barley, Avena and Hordcum, are 

 represented in Britain by other species. Those of Rye and 

 Wheat are not otherwise represented ; in position they follow 

 Agropyrum, the systematic sequence being Agropyrum, Haynaldia, 

 Secale, THticum y Heterantheliwn, Hovdeam. 



