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A GRAIN OF BARLEY. 87 
have not paid any great amount of attention to such subjects, 
consequently, if I go over ground which is already very 
familiar to the more scientific of our Members, I must crave 
their indulgence and patience, for the sake of a few interesting 
facts to which I shall allude, and which are either new or 
comparatively unknown. 
If we carefully examine a grain of ripe barley, we see that 
it may be described in general terms as fusiform, or spindle- 
shaped, and that this little yellow spindle, which is about 
one-third of an inch in length, terminates in a more regular 
and much sharper point at one end than at the other. At 
the sharper end there can always be distinguished a small 
scar, which marks the point of attachment of the grain to 
the spikelet of the ear; this is consequently the lower end of 
the corn. 
Down the whole length of one side of the grain runs a 
deep but narrow furrow (Plate I., Fig. 1, c), in the lower half 
of which can be seen, even with the naked eye, but better 
with a pocket lens, a fine Jdristle (Fig. 1, @), furnished with 
some still finer lateral hairs. This is the so-called “ basal 
bristle,” which lies deep in the furrow, and has its point of 
attachment at the base of the grain. It is, morphologically 
speaking, the prolongation of the axis of the spikelet from which 
the grain springs. 
The general contour of the side of the grain we are con- 
sidering is, notwithstanding the furrow, very convex both in a 
Jateral and longitudinal direction, and hence is known as the 
ventral side (Plate I., Fig. 1, 4). This is the side which 
always faces inwards towards the straw when the grain is still 
attached to the ear. The outer, or dorsal side of the barley 
grain (Plate I., Fig. 1, @) is much flatter than the ventral, 
although somewhat convex, and the evenness of its curved 
surface is broken by five thin little ribs which run in the 
direction of the length of the grain, and mark the position 
of as many vascular bundles, or nourishing vessels, of the 
outer coating. When the grain is viewed in cross section 
