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creeping wheat, which belongs to the red family, has of lateyears acquired considerable reputation, especially for coarseclays, and soils tending to a moorish nature. It derives itsname from a belief that it is peculiarly disposed to plant outthe ground by means of suckers, creeping as it were over theground; and it is considered as peculiarly hardy and proli-fic, especially on inferior soils.
It were certainly desirable to have a distinct nomencla-ture for the several varieties of wheat; but at present nothingof that kind can be attempted with any prospect of success,more especially as the names which they bear among hus-bandmen, in the various districts of the kingdom, are altoge-ther arbitrary, whilst the names used in one district, are notunderstood in any other. All that is distinctly understoodat present, is their classification into white and red, thick-chaffed and thin-chaffed, woolly-eared and bearded, the twolast of which are generally considered as bad varieties. InDr Walker’s account of the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scotland , he enumerates the following varieties * : Greywheat, triticum turgidum, called likewise duck-bill wheat,grey pollard, and Fuller’s wheat. This is a strong antibearded variety, having a strong stem, and carrying largeheavy ears. It is sown in Essex and other parts of England,and thought to be a variety of the triticum ramosum, orbranched wheat, which is cultivated in Sicily.—Cone wheat,triticum conicum, having a conical and bearded spike or head,is of the same family, and is common in the west of England,where it is reckoned well suited for the drill and horse hoe-ing husbandry. Polish wheat, triticum polonicum , is beard-ed, having awns not less than six inches long. This is thekind of wheat usually imported from Riga and the adjacentports in the Baltic. It is a very hardy grain, with remark-ably long and heavy ears, but is very liable to lodge when