332 GBAMINACE.E. 



Lyme-grass and Sea Reed in constructing sea-barriers ; its 

 florets are awnless, and its leaves rolled-in, sharp-pointed, and 

 glaucous. 



The Fibrous-rooted Wheat-grass (T. canmum), has handsome 

 awns, a straight slender green stalk, and roughish leaves ; it 

 is a nutritious Grass, and will grow freely on even poor land. 



All the Wheat family have solitary spikelets, two glumes, 

 enclosing many flowers, and two paleae, the external one being 

 pointed, the internal toothed. Our forefathers used to cut the 

 Wheat half-way between the root and the ear that it might 

 occupy less room in the barn, and the stubble was mown after- 

 wards. We have too great a respect for the straw to follow 

 this style of reaping. Wheat is subject to various diseases 

 which discolour and spoil the grain : these are called Burnt-ear, 

 Smut, and Ergot. It has also enemies from without : the ear- 

 cocles are eel-like insects which eat into the ear, and the wheat- 

 midge deposits its eggs in the germ and prevents the filling of 

 the seed. 



The Barley family (Hordeum), is distinguished from the 

 Wheat by its spikelets having only one perfect floret in each, 

 and by the glumes being one-sided and bearded. The members 

 of this family inhabit both the Old and the New World. 

 America has eight different species. 



The cereal species of Barley can bear great extremes of 

 temperature. In Spain and Barberry two crops of Barley are 

 grown in one year ; and when " the Flax and the Barley were 

 smitten, for the Barley was in the ear," it was the early crop, 

 being the month of March. There are varieties of cereal 

 Barley with two rows of spikelets, and with six rows ; the 

 former is the kind generally grown in England. Barley is less 

 liable to disease than Wheat ; but it also is subject to the 

 burnt-ear, smut, and ergot. It was used for bread almost 

 universally in ancient times. Kuth gleaned by the maidens of 

 Boaz " unto the end of the Barley harvest, and of Wheat 

 harvest;" and the "six measures" which Boaz put into her 



