Antiquity of Wheat and Rye.
In an article in the Century President Charles Barnard says, that the wheat plant is one of the oldest in cultivation. The Chinese recorded its culture as early as 2,700 B. C., and it is one of the prehistoric plants, remains of wheat seeds being found in the ruins of the houses of the lake dwellers, while there are several races of wheat, and while these have been crossed, producing hybrids, it has retained its true character, and been entirely independent of other plants since its culture began. Compared with wheat, rye is a modern plant. It is not figured on any Egyptian monuments, and seems to have been first cultivated in the Roman Empire about the beginning of the Christian era, though it may have been known somewhat earlier in Russia and Tartary. While these two commercial plants have been cultivated side by side for centuries, the first plants appearing to be true hybrids between them bore seeds this year in this country. Wheat and rye may have been crossed before, yet there is no record of anything like the results here obtained. —Scientific American.