676 
other wheats by their long, loose, and chaffy-like 
ear, and by their large grains. The ear is awned, 
and nods to a side; the awns are about three 
times as long as the glumes, and very brittle, and 
easily break off when ripe; the glumes are more 
than an inch in length, or twice as long as the 
florets; four florets are contained in each spike- 
let, and seldom more than two of them, when 
the plant is grown in this country, are fertile; 
and the grains are about half an inch in length, 
of a reddish colour, transparent, and very hard. 
Polish wheat is cultivated in Africa, some parts 
of Asia, Spain, Germany, and Poland; and it was 
introduced to Britain so long ago as the latter 
part of the seventeenth century, and has been 
subjected in this country to a great many experi- 
mental trials, and has been thought to be valu- 
able on account of its productiveness of flour; 
but it is too tender in constitution, and too ex- 
tensively subject to infertility in our climate, to 
be ever likely to become a favourite with British 
farmers. 
The Meagre-Eared Cereal Wheats— These are 
wheats with small, thin, slender, or otherwise 
comparatively inconsiderable ears, of medium 
character between the ears of the bulky cereal 
wheats and the ears of the mere wheat-grasses ; 
and they comprise, among other kinds, the spe- 
cies called zea or far, Bengal wheat, starch wheat, 
and one-grained wheat. 
The zea or far, Triticum zea, is the spelt wheat, 
| or Triticum spelta, of Host and some other conti- 
| 
! 
j 
| 
| 
| 
i 
(AS es ee eee 
nental writers; and it is popularly supposed, 
though we think quite erroneously, to be the 
grain termed zea by the Greeks and far by the 
Romans. Its straw is rigid; its ears are long, 
almost awnless, thin, and upright; its spikelets 
are not so long as two joints of the rachis, and 
are so firmly attached to the rachis, that, in 
thrashing, they do not separate from it but break 
it, each spikelet retaining a joint; its florets on 
each spikelet amount to three, and the middle 
one is barren; its glumes and palez adhere al- 
most as closely to the grain as the spikelets do 
to the rachis; and its grain is elongated, trian- 
gular, reddish, and flinty. This wheat is culti- 
vated on inferior soils in some parts of Conti- 
nental Europe; but is seldom met with in Bri- 
tain, except in botanical collections. 
Bengal wheat, Ziticum Bengalense, was intro- 
duced by Mr. Lawson from Germany in 1834. 
“Tt bears some resemblance,” says Mr. Lawson, 
“tothe Zriticwm zea in the shape and remote- 
ness of its spikelets, which adhere with equal 
firmness to the rachis; the straw and ears are, 
however, much longer, the latter containing 
about thirty-six grains, which are longer and 
more easily detached from the chaff than those 
of Triticum zea. Itis of a more luxuriant growth, 
and has an awn from two to three inches in 
length. This is altogether a much superior va- 
riety to Triticum zea, and is remarkable as being 
the earliest wheat in the whole (of the Highland 
WHEAT. 
and Agricultural Society of Scotland’s) col- 
lection.” | 
Starch wheat, Triticum amyleum, is the spelt 
wheat or Zriticum spelta of most British botani- 
cal authors; and it is both far more varied in 
character and far more economically useful than 
the Triticum zea. “Spelt,” says Professor Low, 
‘“‘is much cultivated in the south of Europe; it 
is grown extensively in the southern provinces 
of France, in Switzerland, Italy, in several parts 
of Germany, and in Arragon, Catalonia, and other 
parts of Spain. Spelt could be raised in this 
country with facility, and, it is probable, on 
soils low in the scale of fertility; it has been 
cultivated in Scotland 600 feet above the level of 
the sea.” Its specific characters are compressed, 
awned, slender ear,—long, smooth, overlapping, 
or closely imbricated, three-floreted spikelets, 
with generally but two perfect seeds,—adhering 
rigid chaff, similarly persistent to that of the zea 
and the Bengal wheat,—and long, irregularly 
triangular, reddish, transparent, but not hard 
grain. It comprises winter and spring, long- 
eared and short-eared, whitish and brownish 
varieties; and in cases where its chaff is red, its 
grain has a correspondingly darker colour. The 
root-leaves of the winter starch wheat or winter 
spelt are narrow and prostrate; the ear is long 
and slightly bent to one side; the spikelets are 
each about as long as three joints of the rachis, 
and contain generally two but sometimes three 
seeds, especially toward the base of the ear; and 
the chaff is whitish, rigid, and shining. The 
spring or summer starch wheat, or spring or 
summer spelt, differs little from the preceding, 
except in having stronger or more upright root- 
leaves, and in ripening about 10 or 14 days ear- 
lier. The ear of the red two-rowed starch wheat 
or spelt, or brown two-rowed starch wheat or spelt, 
is of a reddish-brown colour and slightly glau- 
cous, particularly before ripening; and its grain 
is a shade darker in colour than that of the two 
preceding varieties. The ear of the white broad- 
spiked starch wheat or spelt is considerably 
shorter, much broader, thicker, and more com- 
pact than that of any of the three preceding; 
and its spikelets are more frequently three- 
grained, and about as long as four joints of the 
rachis. The ear of the red or brown broad-spiked 
starch wheat or spelt resembles that of the white 
broad-spiked in form, but has a reddish-brown 
colour, with generally more or less of a glaucous 
or bluish hue, particularly before ripening. 
“Amongst the Alps of Switzerland,” says Mr. 
Lawson, “the winter spelt is found to withstand 
the severest winters, at altitudes far above that 
at which the range of the naked or commonly 
cultivated sorts terminate. And, independently 
of its grain, it might be substituted as an herbage 
plant for yielding a crop of green food for cattle 
early in spring, in late cold districts, from its til- 
lering well, and yielding a considerable quantity 
of foliage. It is sown in October, and the spring 
— +— 
