- 



<3hap. IX. WHEAT. 315 



sometimes suddenly appear: thus Mr. Sheriff has had the good fortune 

 to raise in his lifetime seven new varieties, which are now extensively 

 grown in many parts of Britain. 32 



As in the case of many other plants, some varieties, both old and new, 

 are far more constant in character than others. Colonel Le Contour 

 was forced to reject some of his new sub-varieties, which he suspected 

 had been produced from a cross, as incorrigibly sportive. With respect to 

 the tendency to vary, Metzger 33 gives from his own experience some 

 interesting facts : he describes three Spanish sub-varieties, more especially 

 one known to be constant in Spain, which in Germany assumed their proper 

 character only during hot summers; another variety kept true only m 

 good land, but after having been cultivated for twenty-five years became 

 more constant. He mentions two other sub-varieties which were at first 

 inconstant, but subsequently became, apparently without any selection, 

 accustomed to their new homes, and retained their proper character. 

 These facts show what small changes in the conditions of life cause 

 variability, and they further show that a variety may become habituated 

 to new conditions. One is at first inclined to conclude with Loiseleur- 

 Deslongchamps, that wheat cultivated in the same country is exposed 

 to remarkably uniform conditions ; but manures differ, seed is taken 

 from one soil to another, and what is far more important the plants are 

 exposed as little as possible to struggle with other plants, and are thus 

 enabled to exist under diversified conditions. In a state of nature each 

 plant is confined to that particular station and kind of nutriment which it 

 «an seize from the other plants by which it is surrounded. 



"Wheat quickly assumes new habits of life. The summer and winter 

 kinds were classed by Linnseus as distinct species; but M. Monnier 34 has 

 proved that the difference between them is only temporary. He sowed 

 winter-wheat in spring, and out of one hundred plants four alone produced 

 ripe seeds ; these were sown and resown, and in three years plants were 

 reared which ripened all their seed. Conversely, nearly all the plants raised 

 from summer- wheat, which was sown in autumn, perished from frost ; but 

 a few were saved and produced seed, and in three years this summer- 

 variety was converted into a winter-variety. Hence it is not surprising that 

 wheat soon becomes to a certain extent acclimatised, and that seed brought 

 from distant countries and sown in Europe vegetates at first, or even for a 

 considerable period, 35 differently from our European varieties. In Canada 

 the first settlers, according to Kami, 36 found their winters too severe for 

 winter-wheat brought from France, and their summers often too short 

 for summer-wheat; and until they procured summer- wheat from the 

 northern parts of Europe, which succeeded well, they thought that their 



32 ' Gardener's Chron. and Agricult. summer and winter barley. 



Gazette,' 1862, p. 963. 35 Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, ' Ce're- 



ss ' Getreidearten,' 1841, s. 66,91,92, ales,' part ii. p. 224. Le Couteur, p. 



116, 117. 70. Many other accounts could be 



34 Quoted by Godron, ' De l'Espece,' added, 



vol. ii. p. 74. So it is, according to 36 ' Travels in North America,' 1753- 



Metzger (' Gctreidearten,' s. 18), with 1701, Eng. translat, vol. iii. p. 165. 



