186 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



as to its habits, and the modes adopted for its culture in 

 ancient times. The most marked general feature connected 

 with barley is the wide, range of climates in which it can 

 be cultivated, in this respect taking precedence of all our 

 cereal crops, for it can be cultivated, and successfully, in 

 climates so cold and humid as to prohibit the growth of 

 wheat, and in climates so warm and droughty as to pre- 

 vent the cultivation of the oat. Barley, therefore, is an 

 important cereal ; for it is not only marked for the wide 

 range of climates in w r hich it can be grown, but also for 

 its adaptability to high regions, placed at an elevation con- 

 siderably above that at which wheat can be grown. 



2. Barley belongs to the class of monocotyledonous plants, 

 the sub-class glumifera, order gramina, and the genus 

 hordeum. The following is the generic description of the 

 plant : " Inflorescence, spiked, spikelets are flowered three 

 together, the two lateral often barren (as in the two-rowed 

 barleys); glumes, two, equal, opposite, so small as to re- 

 semble short awns or bristles ; palese, two, the lower one 

 bearded, the upper with two heads; scales two, stigma 

 feathery, seed surrounded by the palese." The number of 

 species, and the varieties of each species, is by no means 

 a settled point. Professor Wilson inclines to believe that 

 Gasparin's classification of two species, the two-rowed, 

 (hordeum distichon, figs. 2, 3, and 4,) and the six-rowed, 

 (hordeum hexastichon, fig. 1,) is the one which is botani- 

 cally correct. Professor Lindley maintains that all the so- 

 called species or varieties which some authorities, as Kunth, 

 reckon up to as many as fifteen, are but variations of the 

 original type, and this, he says, is the "two.ro wed" or 

 what is called the " common barley." Of this genus, the 

 original type of all the barleys now grown, he says, " the 

 spikelets always stand 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 three is alone perfect, the side 

 spikelets being abortive, we have the common two-rowed 

 barley (hordeum distichon) and its many varieties. If the 



