4 



POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



take their rise from the principal ear^ giving the appearance 

 of a small bunch of ears. It is the Mummy Wheat, which 

 has latterly excited so much curiosity^ in consequence of a 

 statement having been circulated^ that it originated from 

 some grains found in the hand of an Egyptian mummy, 

 where it had lain many centuries without germinating, but 

 upon being sown produced plants, from which the seed now 

 termed mummy wheat was raised. This tale is however 

 generally disbelieved; mummy wheat has always been the 

 chief kind cultivated in Egypt and Abyssinia, and much 

 also is grown in Greece; some botanists have thought it a 

 distinct genus, in consequence of the compound structure 

 of its ear, but this character is not found to be permanent. 



The other kinds are the Polish Wheat {Triticum Poloni- 

 <yiwi)\ though called Polish wheat, it is more extensively cul- 

 tivated in Northern Africa than elsewhere; Spelt Wheat 

 (Tritmim Sjoelta), and the One-grained Wheat {T, monocoe- 

 cum), the ear of which is small, compressed, and only two- 

 rowed, like barley, are not much cultivated. Wheat is im- 

 ported chiefly for the purpose of being ground into flour 

 for making bread ; large quantities are also consumed in the 

 manufacture of fine starch, and as flour in dressing cotton 

 fabrics. It comes to us from almost all parts of the globe : 



