11; ChaW. Ezra vi, 9; vii, 22; Greek Matt, iii, 12; xiii, 25, 29, 30; Mark iv, 28 ["com"]; LiiUe iii, 17; xvi, 7: xxii, 31; John xii, 24; Acts vii, 12 [''com"]; xxvii,38; ICor. xv, 37; Kev. vi.G; xviii, 13; also Ju- dith iii, 3; Kcclus. xxxix, '2G). In the A. V. the Heb. words bar ("12 or 13, Jer. xxiii, 28 ; Joel ii, '24 ; Amos V. 1 1 ; viii, 5, tj), da;iun ("|5n, Numb, xviii, 12 ; Jer. xxxi, 12), riphutk (nis^l, I'rov. xxvii, 22), are occasionally translated " wheat ;" but there is no doubt that the prop- er name of this cereal, as distinguished from " barley," " spelt," etc., is chiltuh (nari; Cliald. "p^pPI, chintiii). As to the former Hebrew terms, see under Corn. There can be no doubt that cliittdh, bj' some written chittha, chetteth, cheteh, etc., is correctly translated " wheat," from its close resemblance to the Arabic, as well to the names of wheat in other languages. Celsius sa\-s, " n;:n, chittha, occidtato D in puncto dagesch, pro ilUSn, chiiilha, dicitur ex usu Ebrajorum." This brings it still nearer to the Arabic name of wheat, which in Eoman charac- ters is variously written, hinieh, hiiithe, henta, and by Pemplius, in his translation of Avicenna, hhinttha ; and under this name it is described by the Arabic authors on Materia Jledica. As the Arabic ha is in many words converted into kha, it is evident that the Hebrew and Arabic names of wheat are the same, especially as the Hebrew n has the guttural sound. Different deriva- tions have been given of the word chittdh: by Celsius it is derived from " I35n. chandt, protulit, produxit, /"rwc- tum, ex Cant, ii, 13 ;" or the Arabic " chanat, rubuit, quod triticum rubello sit colore" {IJierobnt. ii, 113). The translator of the Biblical Botany of KoscnmUller justly observes that ''the similarity in sound between the He- brew word chittdh and the English u-heut is obvious. Be it remembered that the ch here is identical in sound with the Gaelic guttural, or the Spanish X. It is fur- ther remarkable that the Hebrew term is etymologically cognate with the words for wheat used b_v every one of the Teutonic and Scandinavian nations (thus we have in Icelandic, hceiti; Danisli, hvede ; Swedish, /u-e/e ,• Mae- so-Goth. hwuite ; German, Weizen); and that, in this in- stance, there is no resemblance between the Scandina- vian and Teutonic terras, and the Greek, Latin, and Sla- vonic (for the Greek word is irvpot;; the Lat'm, frtnnen- tiiin or triticum; the Russian, /JsiewzVs^; Polish, /jsse«««(); and yet the general resemblance between the Slavonic, the riiracian, and the (iothic languages is so strong that no philologist now doubts their identity of origin " (loc. cit. p. 75). Kosenmtiller further remarks that in Egypt and in Barbary Avjmic/t is the usual name for wheat (quot- ing Descrip. de rE(jypte, xix, 45 ; Heist, A cconnt ofMaro- ko and /^Vs, p.309); and also that in Hebrew, n^p, ke- viach, denotes the flour of wheat (Gen. xviii, 6; Numb. V, 15). This, it is curious to observe, is not very unlike the Indian name of wheat, kunuk. All these names in- dicate communication between the nations of antiquity, as well as point to a common origin of wheat. Thus in his llimulayan Botany, Dr. J. F. Boyle has stated: •• W'lieat, having been one of the earliest -cultivated grains, is most probably of Asiatic origin, as no doubt Asia was the earliest- civilized as well as the first- [leopled country. It is known to the Arabs under the name of hinteh ; to the Persians as ffundiim ; Hindu, f/rhiin and kunuk. The species of barley cultivated in the plains of India, and known by the Hindu and Per- sian name /»o, Arabic shair,\s llouind hcxaeisHchum. As both wheat and barley are cultivated in the plains of India in the winter months, where none of the spe- cies of these genera are indigenous, it is probable that both have been introduced into India from the north, iliat is, from the Persian, and perhaps from the Tarta- rian region, where tliese and other species of barley are most successfully and abundantly cultivated" (p. 419). DiflFereut species of wlieat were no doubt cultivated bv
the ancients, as Triticum compositum in Egypt, T. wsti- vuin, T. hibvrnum in Syria, etc.; but both barley and wheat are too well known to require further illustration in tills place. — Kitto.
Mucli has been written on the subject of the origin of wheat, and the question appears to be still undecided. It is said that the Triticum culyare has been found wild in some parts of Persia and Siberia, apparently removed from the iiiHuence of cultivation {Enf/lish Cyclop, s. v. " Triticum"). Again, from the experiments of M. Esprit Fabre of Agde, it would seem that tlie lumierous varie- ties of cultivated wheat are merely improveil transfor- mations of yEgilops ovata {.Journal of the Royal Ay- ricult. Sac. No. 33, p. 167-180). M. Fabre's experi- ments, however, have not been ileemed conclusive by some botanists (see an interesting paper by the late Prof. Henfrey in No. 41 of the ./oui-nul quoted above). Egypt in ancient times was celebrated for the growth of its wheat. The best quality, according to Pliny {Nat. Hist, xviii, 7), was grown in the Thebaid; it was all bearded; and the same varieties, Wilkinson writes {A71C. Eyypt. [ed. 1854], ii, 39), " existed in ancient as in modern times, among which may be mentioned tlie sev- en-eared quality described in Pharaoh's dream" ((ien. xli, 22). This is tlie so-called mummy-wheat, which, it has been said, has germinated after the lapse of thou- sands of years; but it is now known that the whole tiling was a fraud. Babylonia was also noted for the excellence of its wheat and other cereals. '"In grain," saj's Herodotus (i, 193), "it will yield commonly two- hiuidredfold, and at its greatest production as nuich as three-hundredfold. The blades of the wheat and bar- ley plants are often four lingers broad." But this is a great exaggeration (see also Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. viii, 7). Modern writers, as Chesney and Rich, bear tes- timony to the great fertility of Mesopotamia. Syria and Palestine produced wheat of fine quali- ty anil in large quan- tities (Psa. cxlvii, 14; Ixxxi, 16, etc.). There appear to be two or three kinds of wheat at present grown in Palestine — the Triticum vul- f/are {var.hibeiiiuin). the T. spdta [see Kve], and another variety of bearded wheat which a])- pears to be the same as the Egyptian kind, the T. compo- situm. In the par- able of the sower, our Lord alludes to grains of wheat which in good ground produce a liundredfold (Matt, xiii, 8). " The re- turn of a hundred for one," says Trench, " is not unheard of in the East, tliough always mentioned as soinething ex- traordinary." La- borde says, " Tliere is to l)e found at Kerek a species of hundred wheat which justifies the text of the Bible against the charges Egyptian Wlie^t {Triticum, compusi- of exaggeration of turn).