GRAMINEJE. 251 



so many degrees of latitude, it is important to know the varieties 

 best suited to the climate, and the soil most adapted to the plant. 

 The former must be ascertained by trial ; the latter is pretty well 

 known already. The wheat-growing countries are not among the 

 primary formation of Geology, but in the transition and secondary. 

 In the first, siliceous or argillaceous soils prevail ; in the second 

 and third, calcareous and argillaceous, and the latter is of a much 

 richer character than the former. To make wheat a good 

 crop in primitive countries, there must be good and continued 

 manuring ; and a very great improvement would be the addition 

 of lime to the soil in some form, either as marl or lime itself, so 

 that the carbonate of lime shall be in the earth. This seems to 

 be shown by the advantages which result from lime as a manure, 

 and from the fact, that the soil of secondary countries, so pro- 

 ductive of wheat in the temperate latitudes, contains much car- 

 bonate of lime. For illustration, turn to the valley of the Gene- 

 see, where the earth effervesces powerfully with acids, and where 

 lime, and sulphate of lime, and muriate of lime are found com- 

 monly in the waters. A great improvement will doubtless be 

 found in the increase of lime in our soils. There must, indeed, 

 be silex, for this earth seems to be necessary for the hardness of 

 the cuticle, of which glass may be formed by melting the ashes. 



Wheat is said to yield more flour, and its flour to contain 

 more nutritious matter, than any other grain. It yields also a large 

 proportion of starch, considered of the best kind. 



The straw of wheat is wrought into hats, &c. The Dunstable 

 hats are made from the wheat raised on the chalky soil near that 

 place in England. The Leghorn hats are formed of a short and 

 small wheat raised for that purpose on the Arno, between Leg- 

 horn and Florence, and the straws are not split for this object. 

 Loudon. In this State, some beautiful bonnets have been formed 

 from some species of Poa and Agrostis. 



Secale. L. 3. 2. Rye. 



Supposed to be from the Latin to cut, and that from the Celtic 

 for sickle (Loudon). It sometimes grows in our neglected fields ; 

 it cannot be called naturalized ; native country, the North of Asia 

 and Europe. 



