On the Botanical Origin of Wheat, 265 



a hybrid form of JEgilops ovata, and from its nature and habit 

 it seems to stand between it and wheat,, and thns form a con- 

 necting link, for the plants are found mostly on the borders or 

 in the neighbourhoods of corn-fields, and never in situations 

 far removed from cultivated wheat ; and the fact of its being 

 scattered about in small quantities in different localities in the 

 south of France would seem to indicate that corn-fields ex- 

 isted in the neighbourhood at one time. 



Dr. Grodron, a continental botanist, who has paid some 

 attention to this subject, says : — " It is well known that the 

 spike of JEgilops ovata breaks at its base when mature, that it 

 does not become separated into pieces, and that it preserves 

 its seed tightly fixed to the floral envelopes. This spike is 

 introduced into the soil all in one piece, and the four seeds it 

 contains give birth in the following year to four plants of 

 JEgilops, distinct from one another, but with their roots inter- 

 laced, and forming* by their union a little tuft. Ordinarily, all 

 these seeds produce the parent plant ; but sometimes one of 

 the seeds gives birth to a plant very distinct from the first, 

 and having an aspect which reminds us of cultivated wheat. 

 This is JEgilops triticoides. This very interesting fact, ascer- 

 tained by M. Fabre, I have often verified in the vicinity of 

 Montpelier. M. Fabre took the resolution of sowing the seeds 

 of JEgilops triticoides, and followed through twelve successive 

 generations the products furnished by the seeds originally 

 gathered from this wild grass. The plant assumed by slow 

 degrees a taller growth, the spike became larger, it ceased to 

 be brittle at the base, its glumes lost one of the two awns 

 which distinguish JEgilops triticoides; in a word, this plant 

 acquired, in part at least, the characters of wheat." 



Dr. Godron, however, seems to be opposed to the theories 

 of M. Fabre, and himself conducted a series of experiments, 

 which, according to his showing, bore out his views. He says 

 that it is " evident that JEgilops triticoides is nothing else than 

 a hybrid resulting from the accidental fertilization of JEgilops 

 ovata by Triticum vulgare, and in support of this proceeds to 

 describe the results of his experiments. The first was made 

 by scattering the pollen of Triticum vulgare muticum over the 

 spikes of JEgilops ovata, in which the flowers were about to 

 open, and at the period when it penetrates more readily into 

 the flower, from the fact that the glumella3- of the JEgilops 

 separate naturally to about the twenty-fifth of an inch. Out 

 of six spikes so operated upon, and which were carefully 

 gathered as soon as ripe, and the seeds sown in the following 

 spring, five of them produced JEgilops ovata exclusively, the 

 remaining one also produced stems of the same : " but one of 

 the seeds gave birth to two stems much taller than those of 



