CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN WHEAT VARIETIES. 65 
Co. and grown on their experiment station near Stockton, Calif. Of several 
varieties grown, the Bunyip was selected as the most promising and was 
increased and distributed for commercial growing in California. 
Distribution. — Grown in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties, Calif. 
PACIFIC BLUESTEM. 
Description. — Plant spring habit, midseason, tall; stem white, strong; spike 
awnless, linear-oblong, dense, erect; glumes glabrous, yellowish white, some- 
times becoming a light brown, midlong, wide; shoulders wide, square to ele- 
vated ; beaks wide, oblong, obtuse to truncate, 0.5 to 1 mm. long ; apical awns 
several, 8 to 20 mm. long ; kernels white, midlong, soft to semihard, ovate, some- 
times becoming oval ; germ midsized ; crease wide, middeep ; cheeks usually 
angular; brush midsized, midlong. 
This variety can be easily identified by its broad, square shoulders and 
broad, blunt beaks. The variety is a high-yielding wheat under favorable cli- 
matic conditions, and the grain is considered above the average in quality for 
bread making among the white-kerneled wheats grown in the Pacific Coast 
States. Spikes, glumes, and kernels of this wheat are shown in Plate XI, A, 
and a single spike in Plate VI, Figure 5. 
History. — Pacific Bluestem is an old wheat of the Pacific coast area, most 
commonly known as Bluestem and White Australian. The variety came to 
America from Australia. White Lammas was the leading wheat variety of Aus- 
tralia during the earliest years of wheat production in that country. According 
to Cobb (7(?, p. 9), White Australian of California is identical with White Lam- 
mas of Australia. It apparently was introduced into the United States in the 
early fifties as White Australian or Australian. During the period from 1852 
to 1866 {119, p. 176 ; 38, p. 138 ; 8J^, p. 586) its culture became established in Cali- 
fornia under the name White Australian. Since that time it has remained the 
principal variety grown in that State. Bluestem is the name under which the 
variety became establi^ed in Washington and Oregon. According to W. P. 
Church, of Walla Walla, Wash., the wheat known as Bluestem in that section 
came from two introductions, the first from Australia in 1882 and the second 
from New Zealand in 1896. The following item was recorded concerning the 
first introduction : 
Most of the wheat raised in that locality (Walla Walla County) is what is 
known as the Bluestem variety. It is an Australian wheat, introduced in this 
country by Sibson, Church & Co. George Delaney v/as the first to sow the wheat 
in this country in 1882, but W. H. Reed, of the firm of Reed &, Co., grain mer- 
chants, was the first to bring it into general use {21). 
Concerning the second introduction, Mr. Church has stated that " it consisted 
of 14 sacks and contained a mixture of 10 to 15 per cent of red kernels con- 
tained in bearded heads." Mr. Church stated further that the introductions 
came under the name of Purplestraw Tuscan, This name, however, was never 
used for the wheat in the United States. The wheat is not similar to the Purple- 
straw Tuscan wheat of Australia, but is som'ewhat similar to, but not identical 
with, the White Tuscan and Silver King varieties. 
It is not known how the name " Bluestem " came to be applied to the variety, 
as it does not have the purple stem common to many varieties of wheat and is 
not similar to any of the other five varieties grown in the United States under 
that name. To distinguish this Bluestem wheat from the others it has recently 
been called Pacific Bluestem. In Washington and Oregon the Pacific Bluestem 
wheat became as popular as the White Australian did earlier in California, and 
95539°— 22— Bull. 1074 5 
