370 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



barle}^, but he has not been able to go into the details of 

 each species. 



The six-rowed barley has not been seen in the con- 

 ditions of a wild plant, of which the species has been 

 determined by a botanist. I have not found it in Bois- 

 sier's herbarium, which is so rich in Eastern plants. It 

 is possible that the wild barleys mentioned by ancient 

 authors and by Olivier were Hordeum hexastichon, but 

 there is no proof of this. 



On Barleys in general. 



We have seen that the only form which is now found 

 wild is the simplest, the least productive, Hordeum dis- 

 tichon, which was, like H. hexastichon, cultivated in 

 prehistoric time. Perhaps H. viilgare has not been so 

 long in cultivation as the two others. 



Two hypotheses may be drawn from these facts : 1. 

 That the barleys with four and six rows were, in prehis- 

 toric agriculture anterior to that of the ancient Egyptians 

 who built the monuments, derived from H. distichon. 

 2. The barleys with six and four ranks were species 

 formerly wild, extinct since the historical epoch. It 

 would be strange in this case that no trace of them has 

 remained in the floras of the vast region comprised be- 

 tween India, the Black Sea, and Abyssinia, where we 

 are nearly sure of their cultivation, at least of that of the 

 six-ranked barley. 



Rye — Secale cereale, Linnaeus. 



Rye has not been very long in cultivation, unless, 

 perhaps, in Russia and Thrace. It has not been found 

 in Egyptian monuments, and has no name in Semitic 

 languages, even in the modern ones; nor in Sanskrit 

 and the modern Indian languages derived from Sanskrit. 

 These facts agree Avith the circumstance that rye thrives 

 better in northern than in southern countries, where it 

 is not usually cultivated in modern times. Dr. Bret- 

 schneider ^ thinks it is unknown to Chinese agriculture. 

 He doubts the contrary assertion of a modern writer, 



^ Bretschneider, On Study and Value, etc., pp. 18, 44. 



