DESCRIPTIONS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 



191 



How barley was used in ancient and in prehistoric 

 times is uncertain. At present it forms the most impor- 

 tant cereal of the far North. In Central Europe it is used 

 only for brewing beer and for soup, aiul in South Europe 

 mainly as food for horses. It is used for bread also in 

 Asia, especially in Thibet, and in North China and Japan. 

 North America produces considerable quantities of it; 

 South America, on the contrary, very little. A mucilag- 

 inous tea, used as a medicine, is made from the naked 

 barley (officinally known as " Horde um decorticatvm"). 

 Malt and the extract of malt are also medicines. 



Sub-genus II. Crithopsis Jaubert (as a genus ). Rachis 

 articulated ; spikelets in twos, sessile, fertile ; fruit persis- 

 tent ; apical spikelet with four decussating empty glumes, 

 two of which are in the median line of the flowering glume. 



Species one {E. Delileanus Schult.), in 

 the Orient. 



Sub-genus III. Cuviera Kol. (as a 

 genus). Rachis continuous ; spikelets iu 

 twos or threes, all fertile ; fruiting glumes 

 falling oft* from a distinct pedicel ; apical 

 spikelet with two opposite empty glumes 

 in the median line of the flowering glume. 



Species three (H. sylvaticum, H. cri- 

 nittim, H. Caput- Medusa?), in Europe and 

 the Orient. 



288. (275) ElymusL. (Fig. 107). Rachis 

 usually continuous ; terminal spikelet 

 with two empty glumes lying in the 

 median line of the flowering glume, 

 one of them frequently aborted ; lateral 

 spikelets in groups of from two to six, all 

 fertile ; fruiting glumes falling off with a 

 joint of the rachilla ; empty glumes nar- 

 row-linear, short-awned or awn-like ; 

 flowering glumes somewhat shorter, 

 oblong or lanceolate, not keeled, five- 

 nerved, awnless or awned ; fruit ad- 

 herent. 



Species about thirty, throughout all temperate coun 



Fig. 107.— E I y m u s 

 VirghiicusL. (After 

 Gray, Man. pi. 11.) 



