HORDEUM DECORTICATUM. 723 



According^ to Brefcschneider/ barley is included among the five 

 cereals which it is related in Chinese history were sowed by the Emperor 

 Shen-nung, who reigned about 2700 B.C.; but it is not one of the five 

 sorts of grain which are used at the ceremony of ploughing and sowing 

 as now annually performed by the emperors of China. 



Theophrastus was acquainted with several sorts of barley (KptOi}), 

 and among them, with the six-rowed kind or hexastkhon , which is the 

 species that is represented on the coins struck at Metapontum^ i 

 Lucania, between the 6th and 2nd centuries B.C. 



-J ,-^vfT \j^^i. \ji.x\^ v/uix a>ixu, --Axu. ^c-xiuuxxt^o ±y,\^w 



Strabo and Dioscorides in the 1st century allude to drinks made 

 from barley, which according to Tacitus were even then familiar to the 

 German tribes, as they are known to have been still earlier to the Greeks 

 and Egyptians. 



Barley is mentioned in the Bible as a plant of cultivation in Egypt 

 and Syria, and must have been, among the ancient Hebrews, an important 

 article of food, judging tram the quantity allowed by Solomon to the 

 servants of Hiram, king of Tyre (b.c, 1015). The tribute of barley paid 

 to King Jotham by the Ammonites (B.C. 741) is also exactly recorded, 

 ihe ancients were frequently in the practice of removing the hard 

 lateguments of barley by roasting it, and using the torrefied gram 

 as food. ^ ^ 



. Manufacture— For use in medicine and as food for the sick, barley 

 IS- not employed in its crude state, but only when deprived more or less 

 completely of its hu^k. The process by which this is effected is earned 

 on in mills constructed for the purpose, and consists essentially in 

 passing the grain between horizontal millstones, placed ^.^ ^^^/P^^.f] 

 to rub off its i nteguments without crushing it. Barley V^^}^^^^^^^ 

 of It. husk is kn"o wn as Scotch hulled or Pot Barley, When by longer 

 and closer grinding the whole of the integuments have been emo^^^^ 

 and the grain has bScome completely rounded, it is termed fff^f^^^^^^ 

 In the British Pharmacopoeia it is this sort alone which i. ordered to 



1*6 used. 



Description-Pearl Barley is in subspherical ^^ sorv^ha^^;;^^ 

 grams about 2 lines in diameter, of wWte farinaceous f P^*' f ^f ^^ 

 yellowish from remains of the adhering husk, ^^^i J ;« P~J}^^^^^^^^^ 

 surface, as well as in the deep longitudinal furrow ^^'^^.f common 

 IS mdented. It has the farinaceous taste and odour which aie comm 



to most of the cereal grains. ^., , ^ ,, ^ ^„5„ 



Microscopic Structure-The albamen which co-^^^^^^^^^ 

 portion of the grain is composed of Urge thm-WM par^nc^ J ^^^^^^^ 

 eel s of which on transverse section are seen *« ^^J^^^Sudinally. In 

 fl^i to be lengthened in that direction rather ^^^^^-^ -^ ^,i4^er. 

 «;e vicinity of the furrow alone the tissue of th<^ a^^^^m ^^^^.^^^ ^^^^^ 



"s predominating large cells show a P^^^ ;r rows of thick-walled. 



tne outer layer is builfc 



« 



*»« 30 mkm. thick, of densely p«W, "''»'»'• S'"' '. „ „ 



• . -Rrnrlino and Basento m the guU 



'Onmnese Botanical Worhs. etc., Foo- t^VuIu o 

 chow, 1870 7 « of Taraiito. 



^etapontutn lay in the plain between \. 



