178 



PLANTS AND MAN 



Barley 



Next to wheat, barley is the most widely cultivated cereal 

 crop; it is also of great antiquity, having been used for bread even 

 before wheat. Barley, indigenous to southwestern Asia and 

 northern Africa, was known to all the early civilizations of the 

 Mediterranean region. Being an exceed- 

 ingly hardy cereal, it can be grown at high 

 altitudes in mountainous regions as well 

 as farther north than wheat, maize or 

 rice. The genus to which barley belongs 

 includes several native American grasses, 

 among them the familiar squirrel-tail 

 grass. Barley plants seldom grow taller 

 than three feet, and produce spikelets 

 with conspicuously bearded bracts (fig. 

 110). The grains are similar in structure 

 to the other cereals, and are often colored 

 and enclosed in a husk. Barley contains 

 little gluten, hence it can not be made 

 into a light bread. Even with this handi- 

 cap, until the sixteenth century it was the 

 staple bread flour throughout northern 

 Europe. Today most of the barley is 

 grown in Russia and Germany. The 

 domestic crop is raised in Minnesota and 

 the Dakotas, to be made into malt for 

 extracts and beverages (see p. 242). 



Rye 



Rye, like barley, tolerates colder climates than the other 

 cereals. A native of the Black and Caspian Sea region of central 

 Eurasia, rye is primarily a European crop. It resembles barley in 

 habit, but has leaves and grains similar to wheat (fig. 111). Rye 

 plants grow to a height of five or six feet. Cultivated rye is a 

 cereal of relatively recent origin; for although it was known to 

 the Greeks and Romans, it was not grown by them. Since the 

 grain contains gluten, rye flour can be made into a rather 



Fig. 110.— Barley 

 plants produce spikelets 

 with bearded bracts: 

 grain on right, inflores- 

 cence on left. 



