32 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



especially in the form of damaged flour in dressing 

 cotton fabrics, wheat is chiefly employed for bread- 

 making. Though from 3 to 4 million acres in Great 

 Britain are annually devoted to the growth of wheat, 

 and 1 8 million quarters of this grain are annually 

 grown in the United Kingdom, we have to import 

 from 47 to 64 million cwt.* This supply is derived 

 from Germany, Russia, the Danubian provinces, 

 Egypt and India, but especially from Canada and 

 the United States. We also import about 15 million 

 cwt. of flour. Macaroni, vermicelli, Italian paste, etc., 

 are prepared from hard, highly nitrogenous varieties 

 of wheat. Wheat and other straw is, of course, also a 

 valuable commodity, not only for plaiting into bonnets 

 and hats, etc., but especially as a material for paper. 



BARLEY is the grain of various species or varieties 

 belonging to the genus Hordeum and cultivated from 

 so remote an antiquity as to be, like wheat, unknown 

 in a wild state. The chief are Winter, or Six-rowed, 

 Barley, H. hexastichum, L., and Spring, or Two-rowed, 

 Barley, H. distichum, L., an inferior kind known in 

 Scotland (where it grows on poor soil or exposed 

 situations) as Bere or Bigg. Barley is used as a 

 bread- stuff, though not so extensively as formerly. 

 It is also used, with the husk of the grain entirely 

 removed, as Scotch or Pearl Barley. It is, however, 

 mainly employed for malting or fermentation for the 

 brewing of ale or porter and the distillation of 

 whisky and gin. For these purposes upwards of 

 10 million quarters are annually grown in the United 



* A bushel of wheat weighs 55-64 lb., so that a quarter 

 weighs about 4 cwt. 



