ORAMINEjE. 615 



&s larger than last year : in the former at ahout one, and 

 in the latter at four per cent, more, or about lOf and 11 

 per cent., respectively^ in excess of the normal area. In the 

 Central Provinces and in this Presidency, the estimates, when 

 completed, are expected to fall short of both last year and the 

 average, owing to the season being unfavourable for the later 

 sowings, but in Berar the area is returned at over two per 

 cent, more than last year's. More rain is wanted, especially in 

 the Central Provinces, Berar, and in parts of our own Presi- 

 dency, and unless it soon falls the outturn will be still further 

 reduced. A large business in Punjab Wheat was done a few 

 months ago for April- May delivery in Bombay, but owing to 

 the dealers in the Central Provinces holding out for new terms 

 of sale in the local market, very little of the grain of those pro- 

 vinces has so far been contracted for. They have only recently 

 given way, and agreed to sell on the old terms, too late, however, 

 for the market has slipped back and prices have dropped con- 

 siderably from their former high level. 



HORDEUM HEXASTICHUM, Lhm. 



Vig.—Buthie, Fodder Grasses of iV^. India, Pi. F, f. 32. 

 I^arley {Eng.), Orge {Fr.). 



Hab. — Western temperate Asia. Cultivated in the N.-W. 

 Provinces of India, 



Vernacular.—Jar {Hind.), Jab {Beng.), Java (J/ar., Tel.). 



History Uses, &C.— Indra in the Rig-Veda is called 

 ^^(rah yavasjja, "the giver of the barley." At many Hindu 

 ceremonies, such as the birth of a child, marriages, funerals, 

 aiid in various sacrifices, barley is used. In the Atharva-Veda 

 ^lie rice and barley offered to the dead are prayed to to be 

 propitious to them, and in the same Veda rice and barley are 

 unyoked for the cure of disease and deliverance from other 

 evils : " Ftau yakshmain vi budhete ; etau mnn'ch'ato anJiasas." 

 ■Barley is symbolic of wealth and plenty ; it is also a phallic 

 «^mbleni ; Asvalayana, in the first book of the Qrihyasuira, says 



