66 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
also in Britain falls to 12, but he introduced species number 21. 
The grass flora of the Azores is almost identical with that of 
S.W. Europe, the African element being very slight. Godman’s 
Natural History enumerates 51 species of grasses, 30 of these are 
British and the remainder are nearly all from Southern Europe ; 
only four species are peculiar to the Azores. 
On the Andes of South America, our grass flora is represented 
generically by Deyeuxta, Deschampsia, Trisetum, Triodia, Melica, 
Poa, Festuca, Panicum, Bromus. Some of our species, even, have 
reached the southern extremity of the continent, eg. Phleum 
alpinum, Deschampsiu flexuosa, Agropyrum repens. The affinity 
of the South African grass-flora with that of Europe is also generic, 
not specific. A few British species are recorded, viz. Calama- 
grostis epigeios, Aira caryophyllea, Phragmites communis, Keleria 
cristata, Poa annua, Lolium temulentum, Avena fatua, also Hor- 
deum murinum about seaport towns ; most of these, however, have 
been introduced. 
Some of our grasses are indigenous to the mountainous regions 
of Australasia. In New Zealand, for example, Alopecurus genicu- 
latus, Hierochloe borealis, Agrostis canina, Deschampsia cespitosa, 
Keleria cristata, and Festuca duriuscula are native, the last-named 
one abundant in the mountain pastures. Many British species 
have been introduced and become naturalized. The indigenous 
grasses of New Zealand number only 75 species. 
The geographical distribution of the cereal grasses, z.e. those 
which are cultivated for the sake of the grain, is intimately associ- 
ated with the history and civilization of mankind. Most of the 
cereals have been cultivated in the old world in times pre-historic, 
and their original habitat, or home, is largely conjectural. The 
cereals cultivated in greatest antiquity were wheat, spelt, barley 
and rice. 
Small grains and ears of wheat have been found in very ancient 
Egyptian monuments, dating back to B.c. 2500-3000, Another 
variety of wheat with small grains was cultivated in Switzerland 
in the earliest stone age, abundant evidence of which is found in 
the remains of the lake dwellings. The cultivation of wheat is also 
very ancient in China, where an annual ceremony was instituted, 
B.C. 2700, of sowing five kinds of seed, wheat being one. It is 
probable that this grain was cultivated in Western Asia 2000-3000 
years before that epoch, and that the Euphrates valley was then 
its principal habitat. The 200-300 varieties of wheat are referable 
to four races: Triticum vulgare, T. turgidum, T. durum, and T. 
polonicum, all of which are probably derived from a single species. 
Spelt, as distinguished from the true wheats, has the ripe grain 
enclosed in the husk. Its numerous forms may be grouped under 
three names: Zvzticuin spella, T. dicoccum (with two grains in 
each little ear) and 7. monococcum with a I-grained ear. TZ. mono- 
coccum cannot be crossed with any other form of wheat or spelt, 
