HOW TO GROW GOOD CORN. 177 



but the cases of four-rowed barley have been merely accidental — 

 they may be referred to the six-rowed form ; and thus we have only 

 two principal kinds of barley — namely, H. distichum and H. hexa- 

 stichum. 



" 1. H. distichum. — This is the only kind of barley that has been 

 found apparently wild. We have now before us specimens gathered 

 in Mesopotamia during Col. Chesney's expedition to the Euphrates, 

 with narrow ears, a little more than an inch long, exclusive of the 

 awn, or four and a half inches awns included ; and others from the 

 ruins of Persepolis, with ears scarcely so large as starved rye. Both 

 are straw-colour, but that from Mesopotamia has the glumes much 

 more hairy than the other. The plant is also said to inhabit Tar- 

 tary. The report that it grows wild in Sicily seems to have arisen 

 from the Mediterranean uEgilops ovata having been mistaken for it. 

 To this species belong all the varieties, from one to sixteen, formerly 

 mentioned under Barley ; as also does No. 20, fig. 34* — the H. zeo- 

 criton, sprat or battledore barley, an undoubted result of domestica- 

 tion, chiefly remarkable for the ears being so much broader at the 

 base than the point as to produce a long ovate figure. 



" 2. H. hexastichum. — We found no record of this having been 

 found wild, and presume it and its numerous varieties to be domesti- 

 cated forms of H. distichum. The common bere, or winter barley, 

 may be taken as the typical form to which Nos. 18, 21, and 22, and 

 figs. 37 and 38t are evidently referable, varying in size, colour, and 

 hairiness, more than in any other circumstance deserving botanical 

 appreciation. 



" The H. vidgare of Linnseus is a form with the grains in four 

 rows, the naked-eared variety of which is again the II. cosleste of some 

 writei-s. 



" Both these forms of barley vary with naked seed, the pales losing 

 their adhesion to the grain. But this difference is attended with no 

 other peculiarity. 



" 3. The H. trifurcatum, also known under Dr. Boyle's name of 

 H. cegiceras, is a very remarkable naked- seeded species, with much 

 the appearance of wheat. It is a tall or glaucous six-rowed sort, but 

 the rows are not placed in lines with the same exactness as in the 

 two former kinds, so that the ears are round like wheat. The pales 



See Morton's Cyclopaedia of Agriculture. t Ibid. 



Q 



