100 OUR FARM CROPS. 



we then have the four-rowed barley. If, on the other hand, 

 all the spikelets are perfect, we have the six-rowed barley; 

 but the case of four-rowed barley being merely accidental 

 they may be referred to the six-rowed form, and thus we 

 have only two principal kinds of barley, the two-rowed 

 (H. distichum), and the six-rowed (H. hexastichum)." 



This arrangement agrees with that followed by the 

 French agronomist, Count de Gasparin, and probably is that 

 which, botanically speaking, is the most strictly correct. 

 In this country, however, the four-rowed species, or com- 

 mon "here or bigg/' has so long and so regularly been cul- 

 tivated as to assume, at all events, the physical characters 

 of a distinct species; and therefore, for the purposes of agri- 

 culture, we are inclined to increase the classification, and 

 divide the genus into three distinct species, as follows : 



1. HOKDEUM DISTICHUM The ordinary Two-rowed Barley. 

 The ordinary Four -rowed Barley, 



2. HORDEUM VULGARE 



3. HORDEUM HEXASTICHUM The ordinary Six-rowed Barley. 



To these Mr. Lawson, and others, add another the 



( Sprat or Battledore Barley, 



4. HORDEUM ZEOCRITON | (Vgrman Rice or Rice Barle 



No. 1. The first the IT. distichum, or Two-rowed Barley 

 is the species in ordinary cultivation throughout the 

 country, save in the northernmost parts of Scotland, where 

 the four-rowed barley is still considered the most suitable 

 for the district. It differs from the wheat plant in the 

 form of its florets, or rather, perhaps, by its spikelet hav- 

 ing only one perfect floret in each ; and it is easily distin- 

 guished from the other species of barley by the ear being 

 more elongated, and of equal breadth throughout, and by 

 the grains being attached to the rachis in an imbricated 

 manner, partially overlapping each other, instead of stand- 

 ing out from it, as they do, more or less, in the other 



