BUCKWHEAT 
mon buckwheat two other species are cul¬ 
tivated. for grain. Tartary buckwheat ( F. 
tataricum) endures the cold better, but the 
seeds are smaller. It is grown in the 
mountainous. regions of Asia and to some 
extent in eastern Canada and Maine. 
Notch-seeded buckwheat (F. emarginatum) 
is grown in the highlands of northeast 
India, where the grain is used for food. 
HISTORY. 
The common species grows wild on the 
banks of the Amur River in Manchuria 
and near Lake Baikal, and possibly also 
in China and northern India. It was un¬ 
known to the Greeks and Romans, and its 
cultivation is first mentioned in China 
about the tenth century. It was intro¬ 
duced into Europe thru Russia and was* 
Buckwheat blossom. 
grown in Germany in 1436. In the 16th 
century it was cultivated in both France 
and Italy. It was early brought to the 
American colonies where it was largely 
used as a substitute for wheat. 
POLLINATION". 
The plant is a nearly smooth annual, 
growing from one to four feet tall. The 
leaves are halbert-shaped. The small flow¬ 
ers are clustered and possess a strong fra¬ 
grance; the petals are wanting but the 
sepals are white or rose-colored. The nec¬ 
140 
tar is secreted by eight round yellow glands 
interposed between the same number of 
stamens. This species is dimorphic, that is 
there are two forms of flowers, one with 
long stamens and short styles and the other 
with short stamens and long styles. This 
arrangement promotes cross-pollination, in 
the long stamened flowers most visitors 
touch the anthers with the under side of 
the body and the stigmas with the head; 
and the converse takes place in the short- 
stamened flowers. Each plant bears flowers 
of one form only, but the seed from 
either form will produce both forms in 
about equal numbers. 
When the flowers are legitimately pollin¬ 
ated, that is, when pollen is brought from 
flowers with short stamens to flowers with 
short styles, or from flowers with long sta¬ 
mens to flowers with long styles, 
the seeds are more numerous and 
heavier than when the flowers are 
pollinated illegitimately. The pol¬ 
len of the two different forms of 
flowers differs in size and is less 
active upon its own stigma than 
upon the stigma of a flower of the 
other form, or it may be entirely 
inactive (impotent) upon all flow¬ 
ers of the same form as the flower 
producing it. Thus the functions 
of the flowers are such that the ad¬ 
vantages of cross-pollination are 
secured, and yet every flower may 
produce seed. Whereas in plants 
which have the stamens and pistils 
in different flowers only half the 
flowers can be fruitful. The flow¬ 
ers of buckwheat, according to Dar¬ 
win, possess the power of self-fer¬ 
tilization, but when covered with 
nets they are early in the season al¬ 
most wholly self-sterile and produce hardly 
any seed. Flowers cross-pollinated artifici¬ 
ally at the same time produce seeds in 
abundance. Later in the season, during Sep¬ 
tember, both forms of flowers became high¬ 
ly self-fertile. They did not, however, pro¬ 
duce as many seeds as some neighboring 
uncovered plants which were visited by in¬ 
sects. Thus the crop of seed is largely de¬ 
pendent on insects, chiefly honeybees, 
which are estimated to make nine-tenths of 
the visits. There are planted in the United 
States annually 800,000 to 1,000,000 acres 
