Among the numerous common names of the varieties which come under this head, we find that of Egyptian wheat. It appears that it is now much cultivated in that country and in the whole of the Nile valley. A. P. de Candolle says[1801] that he recognized this wheat amongst seeds taken from the sarcophagi of ancient mummies, but he had not seen the ears. Unger[1802] thinks it was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, yet he gives no proof founded on drawings or specimens. The fact that no Hebrew or Armenian name[1803] can be attributed to the species seems to me important. It proves at least that the remarkable forms with branching ears, commonly called _wheat of miracle_, _wheat of abundance_, did not exist in antiquity, for they would not have escaped the knowledge of the Israelites. No Sanskrit name is known, nor even any modern Indian names, and I cannot discover any Persian name. The Arab names which Delile[1804] attributes to the species belong perhaps to other varieties of wheat. There is no Berber name.[1805] From all this it results, I think, that the plants united under the name of _Triticum turgidum_, and especially the varieties with branching ears, are not ancient in the north of Africa or in the west of Asia. Oswald Heer,[1806] in his curious paper upon the plants of the lake-dwellers of the stone age in Switzerland, attributes to _T. turgidum_ two non-branched ears, the one bearded, the other almost without beard, of which he gives drawings. Later, in an exploration of the lake-dwellings of Robenhausen, Messicommer did not find it, although there was abundant store of grain.[1807] Strœbel and Pigorini said they found wheat with _grano grosso duro_ (_T. turgidum_), in the lake-dwellings of Parmesan.[1808] For the rest, Heer[1809] considers this to be a variety or race of the common wheat, and Sordelli inclines to the same opinion. Fraas thinks that the _krithanias_ of Theophrastus was _T. turgidum_, but this is absolutely uncertain. According to Heldreich,[1810] the great wheat is of modern introduction into Greece. Pliny[1811] spoke briefly of a wheat with branching ears, yielding one hundred grains, which was most likely our _miraculous wheat_. Thus history and philology alike lead us to consider the varieties of _Triticum turgidum_ as modifications of the common wheat obtained by cultivation. The form with branching ears is not perhaps earlier than Pliny’s time. These deductions would be overthrown by the discovery of the _T. turgidum_ in a wild state, which has not hitherto been made with certainty. In spite of C. Koch,[1812] no one admits that it grows, outside cultivation, at Constantinople and in Asia Minor. Boissier’s herbarium, so rich in Eastern plants, has no specimen of it. It is given as wild in Egypt by Schweinfurth, and Ascherson, but this is the result of a misprint.[1813] +3. Hard Wheat+—_Triticum durum_, Desfontaines.