GRAMINE^. 



297 



Like other plants raised from the seed, it sports freely, and varieties are 

 numerous; hut the two species here deserihed arc pretty constant, and little 

 attention has heen paid to inijiroving or perpetuatinfj varieties, especially in 

 America. The distichum ripens later, and is in some places preferred for that 

 reason. 



In Kurope the following species are also grown : — 



.?. H. hexastichon. Six-rowed Harley. 



4. H. zeocriton, Battledoor Harley. 



Harlev stands next to rye in importance as a food plant. Its characteristics 

 a.s to cultivation so resemble those of wheat and rye that little needs to be 

 said about them. It is, however, a more gross feeder than rye, and will not 

 yield heavily without high tillage. 



Geography. — Barley grows and ripens over a larger geographical range 

 than either wheat or rye. It ripens and yields generous crops in latitudes 

 where no more than two mouths in the year are free from frost. It grows 

 well in northern Kussia and Siberia, where the 

 ground thaws out only to the depth of two feet, 

 and even less. It will ripen also in warm cli- 

 mates, even in the regions of no frost, but de- 

 lights in a short, hot summer, such as charac- 

 terizes the higher regions of the temperate 

 zones, and like wheat and rye is to be found au 

 emigrant to all the cereal-growing abodes of 

 civilized man. 



Etymology. — The name Iwrdeum is derived 

 from the Latin hordiis, heavy, because bread 

 made from it is usually heavy. The specific 

 name vulgare signifies "common," and distichum, 

 "two-ranked." The common name, barley, is 

 supposed to mean " bearded grain." 



History. — The ancient home of the grain is 

 not known. A traditional history of barley 

 among the Egyptians makes it the first grain 

 used by man. They liold that their goddess Isis 

 taught men its use. It was among the food plant 

 as we have any history of human customs. 



A six-ranked barley, H. hexastichon, cultivated by the ancients, has been 

 found in Egyptian monuments and in the Lake-dwellings of Switzerland, in 

 deposits belonging to the Stone Age. A species known to the ancient Greeks, 

 and denominated the "sacred barley," was used to decorate the hair of the 

 goddess Ceres. Some make its native country Tartary, while others claim 

 that it is indigenous to Siberia. Ili.story bears out the belief that its home is 

 in the middle parts of the temjierate zone in western Asia. It does not fruit 

 without cultivation ; when it escapes cultivation it ceases in a year or two to 

 ripen its seed, and is lost. In fact this is the case with other cereals, and is 

 looked upon as a great mystery ; it does not favor or bear out the doctrine of 

 development, for the other species under this genus refuse under the most 

 careful cultivation to be anything more than ordinary forage grasses. Barley 

 among the Romans was used for feed for horses and cattle, and it also con- 

 stituted the bread-grain of the plebeian classes. Tliny informs us that the 

 gladiators were called " hordcarii " (barley-eaters), from the circumstance that 

 they subsisted on barley. 



HoRUEUM VTTLOARE (Barley), 

 i used bv man as far back 



