CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 243 
1. Triticum vulgare, the common wheat as we know it, both 
bearded and plain, red and white, winter and spring, a type that 
1S very ancient. 
2. Triticum turgidum, or Tréticuim composttuim as it is some- 
times called, —a branching-headed race passing by the common 
names of Egyptian wheat, wheat of miracle, or wheat of abun- 
dance; not of great antiquity, because old remains are not found 
and no name exists for it in either Sanskrit, Indian, or Persian. 
3. Lriticum durum, or hard wheat, growing plentifully in 
southern Europe under many names, none of which trace to 
ancient origin, nor are its remains discovered in antiquity, leav- 
ing the inference that it was derived from the common wheat, 
ZT. vulgare, and at a not distant date. 
4. Triticum polonicum, or Polish wheat, cultivated in the east 
of Europe. Its original German name is g7szmcr, and its other 
names are individual or local, not connected with antiquity. 
None of these races is known to grow wild anywhere on earth; 
indeed, they would not thrive as feral races, for wheat cannot 
long maintain itself against weeds and the more vigorous wild 
competitors.1 
Besides the true wheats there are three closely related species 
that may well engage our attention in this connection. These 
are the common spelt (777zticum spelta), the one-grained wheat 
(Triticum monococcum), and the two-grained or starch wheat 
(Triticum dicoccum), the ‘‘emmer”’ of our own day. 
The spelts stand to wheat much as the so-called husk corn 
does to common maize ; that is, each kernel is enveloped in a 
tight-fitting husk or chaff of its own, like oats or rice. All these 
species were cultivated by the lake dwellers of Switzerland, and 
common names for these wheatlike grains abound, but they all 
trace to southern European or western Asiatic sources. 
None of these species is positively known to be growing wild, 
although different observers have asserted the finding of each. 
1 This has been tried at Rothamsted, and a wheat field left to itself was soon 
entirely overrun by weeds. 
