THE EVOLUTION OF WHEAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2299, 24 March 1898, Page 6

THE EVOLUTION OF WHEAT.

Tbere are several species of grass indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean, as well as in the islands, on fcfce hoi., dry, sandy plains near ihe sea. The chief of these is the ilSgilops, or Go^t';? eye, as (be Greeks christened it, believi&g it to be a remedy fcr an ocular disease. The /Egilvps ovala snoots out another specks, the 111 triticoides, or Kheafc ear, frem one fnd the sains root ipaifcaneoukly. The Goat's eye grasses aie wonderful plants, inasmuch as when properly cultivated wheat can be developed from them. b n"ty years sii.ee a well-known French agriculturist, M. Fubro, considering they belonged to the cereals, made some tspenmcnls with /Egilops ovata, with a view to seeirjg what

could be effected with It under cultivation. He J solved a few seed 3in a sheltered spot enclosed i by high walls. The plants grew a couple of feet high, aDd the seed ripened in the following July, aDd though they bore bub a few 3pikelet* the yield was in the proportion of five to one. Here was already a difference, Lost understood when we bear in mind (hat in ila v,i\d state the yEjilops seldom grows higher than 6m or Bin, and has curved stalks, bearing a small, flat, rudimentary ear containing one or two grains. The stalks are very brittle, and when quite ripe the ears turn black and fall off like the leaves from a tree. In this latter respect M. Fabre'a crop refcaiusd its original habit, for the ear 3 were deciduous, and the stalks broke easily, j but there was a marked difference in height J and production. i Next season the seeds were again sown, and J I In the resulting crop the spikelet3 were more ' j numerous — scaicely an ear without Iwj seeds, j \ and these more floury than before, approaching ! 1 ii_c character of wheat.. The following year 1 ' ih'j it'S°rnbl'.ince to wheat was still rnoie notice- J ; able; thr evi3 wtre ie?s fl%t, bal fnm two to j tbres grain", and the awrs or beard had almost j disappeared. Two seasons after the plants j j g-ew to a height cf 3tfc, and were much stronger | i than any previously produced. The ears cauld j ' riot easily be broken off, the grains were j plumper, and one of the plants yielded 380 for i one, aud another 450 for oae. Next year every | ear was lull, and 'he grains nob so densely I coated as previously; and the following year — the seventh from the commencement o\ the experiment — IT. Fabre co.-sidered that the transformation o ! the grass into wheat ( frlticum) had bsen completely elf tcbfd, and f/bat all the j plants raised were true representatives ot cul- : tivaled wheat. I H>r?>, then, in se«eo years was a change i effected by artiScia* m'=aiis which may bo re- i ," yarded as ." truly ex .ry.ordinary pr.et!OT:euon in j ! cultivation. A wild and c^rnpara'ively useless i ! gra, f s wan cocvettnd into a valuable cereal, urc- j I nris-Vkab'y deaionstrating Ihe origin of wheat. { j Old ! otanista bad long repeated statements | thai cultivated wheat had long grown wild in I Persia, Babylonia, and Hici'y, and this was j hereby proved to be true. No wonder thab French agriculturists p.t once cams to the conc'.usicn, ever sinca confirmed, that ru'tivated ' wheats (Tntica) are on'y races of JEgWops, or the Mediterranean grasses. —Wm Norman Broavn.