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The Tuscany straw-hat wheat, or Froment blé 
de Toscane & chapeaux, is a French modification 
of the Leghorn or true Tuscany, and very much 
resembles the common bearded spring wheat of 
the French, but grows rather taller, and is a 
shade yellower in colour when ripe; and it dif- 
fers from the white bearded Tuscany wheat in 
both the ear and the grains,—the former being 
smaller and less compact, and the latter smaller, 
flinty, and of a light reddish colour. 
The Cape wheat is also a French sort, and is 
reckoned by the French farmers one of their beat 
spring wheats, but is found by them to be liable 
to degenerate unless the seed be often changed, 
and is also found to be more suitable for the south 
than for the north of France. Its ear is white 
and long; its awns are spreading; its spikelets 
are closer than those of most bearded wheats, and 
are also spreading; and its grain is larger, elon- 
gated, whitish-coloured, and generally plump, 
and forms rather a superior sample. 
The small Sicilian bearded spring wheat differs 
from all the preceding varieties of bearded 
wheats, in the closeness of its ear, in the hard- 
like, smooth, shining appearance of its chaff, and 
in the shape and texture of its grain. Its ears 
| are rather under the medium size; its awns are 
upright and longer than the ear; its spikelets 
are contracted, and slightly imbricated; and its 
grains are rather above the medium size, slight- 
| ly elongated, and flinty. 
Among other and more recently introduced 
' white bearded spring wheats may be mentioned 
Colonel Le Couteur’s early white spring wheat, 
the macaroni small hard wheat, the Naples white 
bearded wheat, the Tremoise black-jointed spring 
wheat, the Barbary hard chaffed wheat, and 
Gale’s Hampshire wheat,—the last characterised 
by Colonel Le Couteur as “ very enormously pro- 
ductive.” 
The velvet-eared or woolly-eared red bearded 
_ wheat is an early, hardy, prolific winter wheat, 
and might probably be found suitable as a spring 
wheat. Its ear is long, downy, rather compact, 
and of a dark reddish colour; its chaff is hard, 
and does not allow the seeds to be easily shaken 
| by the wind; and its grains are large, flinty, and 
rather coarse. 
The Victoria wheat, or Victoria red spring 
wheat, was observed by Humboldt in the neigh- 
bourhood of Victoria, in Caraccas, and was intro- 
duced thence to Britain by Sir R. K. Porter. Inits 
native country, it ripens in 70 or 75 days from 
the time of sowing, and is very productive; and 
in an experiment, at Annat Garden in Scotland, 
it was sown on the LOth of June, and cut nearly 
ripe on the 16th September. Its straw is rather 
shorter than that of common wheats; its ears 
also are short, but pretty compact, and whitish 
coloured; its awns are spreading, and fully as 
long as the ears; and its grains are rather small, 
comparatively long, reddish-coloured, slightly 
cornered, and flinty. 
Was 
W HEAT. 
The fern wheat began to be cultivated in the 
Carse of Gowrie in 1829; and, when sown there 
in the last week of March, ripens as early as any 
of the winter wheats sown in the previous Octo- 
ber or November. Its ear is about 6 inches long, 
compressed, and of a light reddish colour; its 
awns are spreading, and considerably shorter 
than the ear; its spikelets are spreading, and 
very remote, and often contain each four grains ; 
and the grains are elongated, of a bright light 
reddish colour, and rather flinty, and they 
weigh at the rate of 63+ Ib. per bushel. This 
wheat is very liable to smut, and very apt to 
shake when over-ripe, and should not be allowed 
to stand beyond a state of moderate ripeness. 
The red bearded Mendoza wheat was intro- 
duced to Britain from Mendoza by Sir John Sin- 
clair. It bears a considerable resemblance to 
the fern wheat; but has stronger chaff, and 
larger and coarser grains. 
The red Chinese wheat resembles the small Si- 
cilian spring wheat in all its parts, except the 
colour of its chaff and grain, which are of a dark 
reddish hue. 
Among other and more recently introduced 
red bearded spring wheats may be mentioned the 
Caucasian red wheat, the Capriola rosa red 
wheat, the Cape red spring wheat, the hedgehog 
red wheat, the Narbonne red wheat, and the 
transparent red wheat. 
The Compact-Eared Cereal Wheats——The com- 
pact-eared wheats are distinguished from the 
common-eared beardless wheats by the extreme 
shortness of their internodii, the compact setting 
of their spikelets, and the square form of their 
ears; and they constitute a group which almost 
all botanists treat asa distinct species, under the 
name of Tritecum compactum. But they really 
are so closely allied to the common-eared wheats 
that they might fairly be viewed as a mere 
sub-species of them; and, in a sense, they actu- 
ally comprehend all such common-eared wheats 
as are popularly called thicksets, or as have un- 
usually short internodii or very closely set spike- 
lets. “TI have received specimens of compact 
wheat from France and Sweden,” says Professor 
Low, “and have cultivated them without ob- 
serving any change of characters. Whether, 
however, the characters which distinguish it 
are sufficiently permanent to entitle it to be re- | 
garded as a species, has not been determined ; in 
the meantime, following the authority of Host, 
I have placed it amongst the species.” Loudon 
represents it as a specific wheat introduced to 
Britain from Austria in 1819. 
The Chili square wheat is one of the most 
marked varieties of compact-eared wheat. Its 
straw is white, very smooth, stiff, and upright; 
its ears are white, very smooth, upright, a little 
compressed on two sides, and seldom more than 
15 inch in length, and about ? of an inch in 
breadth; its spikelets are narrow, two or three 
seeded, and placed so remarkably close on their | 
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