VARIETIES OF BARLEY 



325 



In the two-rowed type the lateral grains have failed to 

 develop through the abortion of the ovulary, although the stamens 

 may be present. The flowering glume and palea remain in a 

 somewhat rudimentary form, while the outer glumes are fully 

 developed. In the six-rowed type the joints of the ^ 



rachis are closer together and less in number, making 

 a shorter and much more compact spike than in the 

 two-rowed, but with grains somewhat more numerous. 

 In the two-rowed type the spike is distinctly com- 

 pressed laterally, while in the six-rowed an end view 

 is somewhat star-shaped. The two-rowed varieties 

 have the greater tendency to tiller.^ There is a 

 hull-less barley {H. iiiLduni L.), also known as 

 naked or bald barley. This type is beardless, and 

 is divided into white, purple and black varieties. ^®^^^'^" ^^'■• 



' -^ ^ ^ ley. One. 



There are also beardless varieties among the types third natural 

 which retain the hulls. ®'"* 



It is probable that all these different types are due to cultiva- 

 tion. Which is the original type appears less clear. Hackel 

 believes that cultivated barley originated from H. spontaneiim 

 C. Koch, which resembles closely the two-rowed type.^ On the 

 other hand, it appears that the type most universally cultivated 

 from earliest times has been the six-rowed type ; the widespread 

 cultivation of the two-rowed type in Europe being compara- 

 tively recent, although of its ancient culture there is no doubt.' 



448. Two and Six-Rowed Varieties. — At the present time, 

 cwo-rowed barley is almost universally raised in Europe for the 

 production of malt. When the four or six-rowed barley is 

 raised there it is generally used as food for domestic an mals. 

 The two-rowed varieties appear to be preferred by European 

 flflalters because of their thin hull and low per cent of protein, 



1 Soc. Prom. Agr. Sci., 1899, p. 80. 



2 True Grasses, p. 189. 



* De Candolle : Orio'in of Cultivated Plants, p. 367. 



