176 HOW TO GROW GOOD CORN. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



ON THE SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF BARLEY AND RYE. 



The cereal barley is found to offer three important 

 forms, which can be best explained by the annexed 

 diagramatic arrangement : — 



oOo sos £o£ 



Two-rowed — Four-rowed — Six-', 

 hy abortion of four by abortion of two hy fruition of all 

 V / 



the seeds of a spikelet. 



The two-rowed barley has been named Hordeum 

 distichum; and as we are inclined, with Professor 

 Lindley, to the belief that this is the original from 

 whence the other forms have sprung, we here quote 

 the learned Professor's remarks upon this and the 

 probably allied forms : — 



"It is probable," he says, "that all kinds of barley grown by 

 farmers are varieties of one species, of which the //. distichum of 

 Linnaeus is the type. The spikelets of this genus always standing in 

 threes, and the threes being placed back to back, it is evident that 

 every ear of barley must consist of six rows of spikelets. If the 

 middle spikelet of each set of threes is alone perfect, the side spike- 

 lets being abortive, we have H. distichum, the common two-rowed 

 barley, and its many varieties ; if the two-tuberal of each set is 

 perfect, and the central spikelet imperfect, as sometimes happens, 

 then we have four-rowed barley ; if, on the other hand, all the spike- 

 lets are perfect, we have six-rowed barley, or II. hexastichum ; 



