11. Chap. 11.-Spelt.

CHAP. 11.—SPELT.

Of all these grains barley is the lightest,[1] its weight rarely exceeding fifteen pounds to the modius, while that of the bean is twenty-two. Spelt is much heavier than barley, and wheat heavier than spelt. In Egypt they make a meal[2] of olyra,[3] a third variety of corn that grows there. The Gauls have also a kind of spelt peculiar to that country: they give it the name of "brace,"[4] while to us it is known as "sanldala:" it has a grain of remarkable whiteness. Another difference, again, is the fact that it yields nearly four pounds more of bread to the modius than any other kind of spelt. Verrius states that for three hundred years the Romans made use of no other meal than that of corn.

1. Oats and rye excepted.

2. Here the word "far" means "a meal," or "flour," a substitute for that of "far," or "spelt."

3. Triticum monococcum, according to some. Fée identifies it with the Triticum spelta of Linnæus.

4. A variety, probably, of the Triticum hibernum of Linnæus, with white grains; the white-wheat of the French, from which the ancient Gauls made their malt; hence the French word "brasser," to "brew."