Chap. IX. "WHEAT. 319" 



were " smaller, shorter, and nearer to each other, than in that 

 now grown ; without the husk they were 1\ lines long, and 

 scarcely \\ broad, Whilst those now grown have a length of three 

 lines, and almost the same in breadth." 46 These small-grained 

 varieties of wheat and barley are believed by Heer to be the 

 parent-forms of certain existing allied varieties, which have 

 supplanted their early progenitors. 



Heer gives an interesting account of the first appearance and 

 final disappearance of the several plants which were cultivated 

 in greater or less abundance in Switzerland during former 

 successive periods, and which generally differed more or less 

 from our existing varieties. The peculiar small-eared and small- 

 grained wheat, already alluded to, was the commonest kind 

 during the Stone period ; it lasted down to the Helvetico- 

 Koman age, and then became extinct. A second kind was rare 

 at first, but afterwards became more frequent. A third, the 

 Egyptian wheat (T. turgidum), does not agree exactly with any 

 existing variety, and was rare during the Stone period. A 

 fourth kind ( T. dicoccum) differs from all known varieties of this 

 form. A fifth kind {T. monococcum) is known to have existed 

 during the Stone period only by the presence of a single ear. 

 A sixth kind, the common T. spelta, was not introduced into 

 Switzerland until the Bronze age. Of barley, besides the short- 

 eared and small-grained kind, two others were cultivated, one 

 of which was very scarce, and resembled our present common 

 H. distichum. During the Bronze age rye and oats were intro- 

 duced ; the oat-grains being somewhat smaller than those pro- 

 duced by our existing varieties. The poppy was largely culti- 

 vated during the Stone period, probably for its oil; but the 

 variety which then existed is not now known. A peculiar pea 

 with small seeds lasted from the Stone to the Bronze age, and 

 then became extinct ; whilst a peculiar bean, likewise having 

 small seeds, came in at the Bronze period and lasted to the time 

 of the Bomans. These details sound like the description given 

 by a palaeontologist of the mutations in form, of the first 

 appearance, the increasing rarity, and final extinction of fossil 

 species, embedded in the successive stages of a geological for- 

 mation. 



« Heer, as qiioted by Carl Yogi, < Lectures on Man/ Eng. translat, p. 355. 



