COMMON WHEAT 521 



much grown. They resemble the hard wheats in the possession 

 of sharply-keeled glumes, but the grain, which is red, is short 

 and thick, with a blunt, flattish apex. 



The ears are large and four-sided with the spikelets closely 

 packed on the rachis, and the straw very tall, stiff, often solid 

 in the upper internodes, and not at all liable to lodge. 



The glumes of most varieties are covered with violet-velvety 

 hairs, and the flowering glume possesses a long awn which often 

 falls off when the grain is ripe. 



The turgid wheats, of which there are two or three British 

 varieties, are very late in ripening and only suited to stiff clay 

 soils in the south of England, where they give very large yields of 

 coarse grain and long rigid straw of little use except for litter and 

 thatching purposes. 



The grain is exceptionally rich in starch and poor in gluten ; 

 the flour is somewhat dark-coloured and unsuitable for bread- 

 baking except when mixed with that from more glutinous varieties 

 of wheats. 



Sub-Race, C. Dwarf Wheat (Triticum compadum Host.) 

 (Fig. 1 68, A). — The dwarf wheats have very short, stiff straw and 

 exceedingly dense short ears which are rarely over two inches 

 long ; the empty glumes are keeled in the upper half and rounded 

 in the lower half. 



They are chiefly grown in parts of Germany, Switzerland, 

 Chili and Turkestan ; but a wheat known as Piper's Thickset, 

 formerly cultivated in England on account of its heavy yield, 

 appears to have belonged to this race. The awned forms are 

 known as ' Hedgehog Wheats.' 



The grains of all the varieties are small and of moderate 

 quality only. 



Sub-Race, D. Common Wheat {Triticum vidgare Vill.). — 

 To the sub-race of common wheat belong all the most important 

 varieties in cultivation in the great wheat-growing districts of 

 Europe, Australia, and America. 



