On the Botanical Origin of Wheat. 263 



difficult solution. That wheat was known in very ancient times 

 is admitted by all ; but from what country it originally came, 

 as well as from what plant it originally sprung, is still a con- 

 troverted point. The cultivation of wheat, as we all know, is 

 coeval with the history of agriculture itself. It is said to 

 have been found wild in Asia Minor, but great doubt exists as 

 to its native country. 



Wheat is now known to the botanist as Triticum vulgare, of 

 which, however, there are a whole multitude of cultivated 

 varieties. The most prominent or best distinguished forms 

 are T. cestivum (Lin.), T. hybevnum, and the spelt wheat, 

 T. spelta. Of the genus Triticum we have two species natives 

 of Britain, T. repens and T. caninum, under which the other 

 species formerly described in British Floras are now sunk. 

 The first of these, the couch-grass, is a common and too well- 

 known plant to agriculturists, owing to the great difficulty 

 experienced in extirpating its long creeping roots, which ex- 

 haust and impoverish the ground. T. caninum comes nearest 

 to it in point of botanical characters, and the best means of 

 distinguishing the two is by the fibrous root of the latter, 

 compared with the creeping rhizome of the former. T. repens, 

 however, has shown itself to be capable of changing its 

 characters considerably in different situations. In some the 

 awns are found bearded, while in others they are beardless. 



A field of corn is always a pleasant sight, even when the 

 blades have only just sprung from the ground, and are fresh 

 and green with vigorous growth; but when the flower-spikes 

 have reared their lofty heads often to a level with our own 

 heads, and have changed their colour from green to the 

 characteristic golden brown, and have become weighted with 

 their heavy seeds, bowing with every breeze, a corn-field is in 

 its greatest beauty, and is justly one of the happiest additions 

 to an English landscape. 



The question as to what was the original or wild state of 

 wheat is one of very great interest, and one which has occupied 

 the attention of many botanists, both British and foreign. 

 Much has been written, and, perhaps, more especially by con- 

 tinental botanists, to establish the theory of the origin of wmeat 

 from JEyilops ovata, and, on the other hand, to refute it. 

 Amongst English botanists, the late Professor Henfrey paid 

 particular attention to the subject ; but it would seem that the 

 idea of JEgilops triticoides being a hybrid production of 

 JSgilops ovata was first made known by Dr. Kegel, of the 

 Imperial Botanic Garden, St. Petersburgh. Experiments that 

 have since been conducted in crossing these plants with wheat 

 have proved satisfactory, so far as the greater development of 

 the plants could be anticipated in so short a space of time, 



