other wheats. The hard wheats have a compact 
seed nearly transparent, which, when bitten 
through, breaks short, and shows a very white 
flour within. The soft wheats are those usually 
cultivated in Britain; they have an opaque coat 
or skin, and which, when first reaped, gives way 
readily to the pressure of the finger and thumb. 
These wheats require to be well dried and har- 
dened before they can be conveniently ground 
into flour. The Polish wheat has a long chaff 
| which is much longer than the seed, a large 
oblong hard seed, and an ear cylindrical in ap- 
pearance ; it is a delicate spring wheat, and not 
very productive in the climate of England,—hence 
it has only been occasionally cultivated by way 
of experiment. The hard wheats contain much 
more gluten, a tough viscid substance which is 
very nutritious, and which, containing a portion 
of nitrogen, readily promotes that fermentation, 
or rising, as it is called, of the dough, which is 
essential to good light bread. The quantity of 
this varies with the soil and climate, from 5 per 
cent. in some soft wheats to 30 per cent. in the 
hardest and most transparent. It is this quan- 
tity of gluten which causes the Italian wheats to 
be used exclusively for the rich pastes which 
form so large a portion of the food of that na- 
tion. The soft wheats contain the greatest 
quantity of starch, which fits them for the vin- 
ous fermentation, by its conversion into sugar 
and alcohol. For brewing or distilling, there- 
fore, the soft wheats are the best.” [Rham’s 
Dictionary of the Farm.] 
The cereal wheats, when viewed with reference 
to the form of their ears or the aggregation of 
their spikelets, may be classified into the com- 
mon, the compact, the turgid, the compressed, 
the nodding, and the meagre. The common have 
a slightly compressed spike, and are either awned 
or beardless, white or red, and comprise all the 
ordinary winter wheats and spring wheats of 
Britain; the compact have a square beardless 
spike, and possess in other respects a close affinity 
to the common wheats; the turgid have a com- 
pact bearded spike, generally but not always 
square, and comprise, among other kinds, the 
rivet, the Turkey, the St. Helena, and the Egyp- 
tian wheats; the compressed have large, broad, 
bearded, compressed ears, elongated spikelets, 
and large shining chaff, and comprise the hard 
wheats of the Mediterranean and of South-Has- 
tern Asia, and the Siberian, Tangier, and hard 
Sicilian wheats; the nodding have long, loose, 
bearded, nodding spikes, and comprise the Polish 
wheats ; and the meagre have long, erect, thin 
spikes, and comprise the zea, the Bengal, and the 
spelt wheats. 
Beardless and bearded, or awnless and awned, 
are very obvious characters of the cereal wheats, 
and might seem to afford a ready criterion for 
arranging them into two great classes, and are 
apt to be eagerly viewed by most superficial and 
vulgar observers as far more distinctive features 
WHEAT. 
663 
than any which can be found in the florets or 
the seeds; yet, though they coincide to a certain 
extent with some of the classifications which have 
reference to the form of the ear or the aggregation 
of the spikelets, they do not of themselves possess 
any real indicational value, either botanical or 
economical. The beards or awns of almost any 
grasses, and particularly those of wheats, are so 
dependent on climate, culture, soil, and other 
circumstances for size, for persistency, and even 
for existence that, in many instances, they fail 
to indicate with permanence or certainty even a 
subvariety of any species. Some wheat-awns 
are but a degree longer than a mere point, and 
others are one, two, or several inches long ; some 
are so laxly seated as to be easily blown away by 
winds when the grain is ripe, and others are 
almost as stubbornly persistent as those of the 
common barleys; some appear with tolerable 
steadiness in all the species of a genus or group, 
and others are altered or suppressed or produced 
in a single variety by a mere change in the cir-_ 
cumstances of climate and culture. The only 
real value of the distinction between beardless 
and bearded wheats, is that, in the case of the 
common cultivated British sorts, the beardless 
ones have commonly larger ears, less remote 
spikelets, and larger and less elongated grains 
than the bearded ones; but even this rule is 
very far from being constant. And as to a pre- 
vailing custom of identifying beardless common 
wheats with winter wheats, and bearded com- 
mon wheats with spring or summer wheats,— 
this is much more inconstant than even the rule 
we have stated, and has sometimes a tendency 
to lead to serious practical error; for though 
most of the beardless common wheats, both 
white and red, are really winter wheats, yet a 
few are just as really spring wheats, or have not 
sufficient hardiness for autumnal sowing,—while, 
on the other hand, some of the bearded common 
wheats, both white and red, are really winter 
wheats, or are as hardy and require as long a 
time to attain maturity as the generality of au- 
tumn sown beardless wheats. 
The cereal wheats suitable for cultivation in 
Britain, as well the compact, the turgid, and 
the compressed kinds, as the common kinds, 
may, with reference to their comparative hardi- 
ness and earliness, be very properly classified 
into winter wheats and spring wheats; every 
kind being a winter wheat which is hardy 
enough for autumnal sowing, or which does not | 
ripen soon enough or bear a sufficient produce 
when sown in spring,—and every kind being a 
spring or summer wheat which cannot withstand 
the rigours of our winter, or which has the power 
of running so rapidly to maturity that it may be 
sown in the month of April or in the early part 
of May,—and every kind, of course, being both 
a winter wheat and a spring wheat which pos- 
sesses suitableness alike or nearly alike for au- 
tumnal and for vernal sowing. And when, ac- 
