~~ a> eee 
‘histology, that is the minute anatomy, of the grain has been 
1I2 A GRAIN OF BARLEY. 
and patience, but if the subject has proved of sufficient : 
interest to you I hope at some future time to say some- 
thing further on these matters, and to give you also a 
brief sketch of the life history of the barley-plant and 
its relation to its surroundings. As it is, I have been 
obliged to limit my remarks to the anatomy of the grain, 
and to the main physiological processes involved in the first 
stages of its growth, but in treating of these I have been 
able to touch the mere fringe of a great subject, and one in 
which very much still remains to be done. It is true that the ~ 
sro a. ee 
pretty nearly worked out, mainly by Johannsen, Holzner, and 
Lermer, but with regard to the complex phenomena attending 
germination, and the absorption of the stored-up materials of 
the endosperm, we stand only upon the threshold of know- 
ledge. There is in this direction a vast and comparatively 
untried field for research, and the results to be obtained 
cannot but throw a great deal of light upon some of the most 
dark and difficult problems in vegetable physiology. They 
must, besides, add materially to the applications of science to 
the industrial process of malting. This art, based, as it no 
doubt is, upon a safe and solid foundation of experience, has 
hitherto derived as little substantial aid from science as did 
the art of brewing itself before the chemical transformations of | 
starch were understood, and the genius of Pasteur had placed 
the phenomena of fermentation upon a true scientific basis. 
as ee ee 
ay FS Se ae 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 
N.B.—Plates I., II., and III. have been reduced from the drawings of 
Holzner in his “ Beitrage zur Kentniss der Gerste.” The Photo-micrographs 
of the sections of barley were prepared for me by Dr..G, H. Morris. The 
section of the wheat grain is after Aimé Girard. 
PLaTE I. 
Fig. 1.—Grain of Barley. . 
a. Dorsal view. 4. Ventral view. c. Ventral furrow. d. Basal bristle. 
Fig. 2.—Sketch of longitudinal section through Barley grain. 
ps. Palea superior. »/.z. Palea inferior.  /. Pericarp. 7%. Testa. 
al, Aleurone layer. end. Endosperm, em. Embryo. d@. Basal bristle. 
aw. Awn, 
