CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN WHEAT VARIETIES. 3 



FOREIGN CLASSIFICATIONS.* 



The existence of many different varieties of wheat has been recog- 

 nized for more than 2,300 years. Theophrastus (189), a pupil of 

 Plato, in his " Enquiry into Plants," written about 300 B. C, states : 



There are many kinds of wheat which take their names simply from the 

 places where they grow, as Libyan, Pontic, Thracian, Assyrian, Egyptian, 

 Sicilian. They show differences in color, size, form, and individual character, and 

 also as regards their capacities in general and especially their value as food. 



Theophrastus mentioned many of the differences between these 

 kinds of wheat. In the writings of Varro, Pliny, and Columella, in 

 the first century B. C. and the first century A. D., the observations of 

 Theophrastus were repeated, rearranged, and amplified. Columella, 

 who wrote about 55 A. D. (7^, trans. 174.5), presents these previous 

 observations and his own, as follows : 



Triticum, common bare wheat which has little husk upon it, was, according 

 to Varro, a name given formerly to all sorts of grain beaten or bruised out of 

 ears by trituration or thrashing; but afterwards it was given to a peculiar 

 species of grain, of which there are many sorts, which take their name from the 

 places where they grow; as African, Pontic, Assyrian, Thracian, Egyptian, 

 Silician, etc., which differ from one another in color, bigness, and other prop- 

 erties too tedious to relate. One sort has its ears without beards and is either 

 of winter or summer. Another sort is armed with long beards and grows up 

 sometimes with one, sometimes with more ears. Of these the grains are of dif- 

 ferent sorts ; some of them are white, some reddish, some round, others oblong, 

 some large, others small. Some sorts are early ripe, others late in ripening; 

 some yield a great increase, some are hungry and yield little ; some put forth a 

 great ear, others a small. One sort stays long in the hose ; another frees itself very 

 soon out of it. Some have a small stalk or straw ; others have a thick one as the 

 African. Some are clothed with few coats, some with many, as the Thracian. 

 Some grains put forth only one stalk, some many stalks. Some require more, 

 some less time to bring them to maturity. For which reason some are called 

 trimestrian, some bimestrian; and they say that in Euboea there is a sort which 

 may be brought to perfection in 40 days; but most of these sorts which ripen 

 in a short time are light, unfruitful, and yield very little, though they are 

 sweet and agreeable to the taste and of easy digestion.. 



In the early Roman literature mentioned reference is found to two 

 groups of wheat, namely, triticum and adoreum, or far. Columella 

 referred to the far as bearded wheat. The grain of triticum was 



* Note. — Since this manuscript was completed, two excellent publications on wheat 

 classification have appeared : 



(a) Australia. Institute of science and industry. A classification and detailed de- 

 scription of some of the wheats of Australia. Australia. Inst. Sci. and Indus., Bui. 18, 

 48 p., 4 pi. (1 col.). 1920. Forty-eight of the leading wheats of Australia are classified 

 and described in a manner similar to that used by the writers. 



(b) Percival, John. The Wheat Plant, x, 463 p., 228 fig. (in text and on pi.). 

 (1921.) Bibliography, p, 441-453. A large number of wheat varieties of the world 

 are described and classified and the morphology of the wheat plant discussed fully. 



In addition to the publications reviewed here, extensive botanical treatises on the 

 taxonomy of wheat formsi have been published in Russia by Flacksberger, the most 

 important one being Flacksberger, C, Determination of wheats. In Bui. Appl. Bot., 

 v. 8, no. 1/2, p. 9-210 (1-202), 43 fig., 1 col. pi., 1915. In Russian. English sum- 

 mary, p. 183-210 (175-202). 



