THE IDENTIFICATION" OF VARIETIES OF BARLEY. 27 



The color of the grain is also as apparent in thrashed material as 

 in the spike. The determination of the awned or hooded character 

 is next to impossible if the sample has been thrashed clean. Ordi- 

 narily enough kernels still bear fragments of awns or hoods, as the 

 case may be, to make this determination certain. If the barley has 

 been clipped, the determination may be impossible. Naked varie- 

 ties are more difficult to determine than hulled, and the identification 

 must depend upon the fragments of awns and hoods which are likely 

 to be present. Short, relatively thick kernels may be suspected of 

 being the Nepal, which is the hooded, white, 6-rowed naked barley, 

 but positive identification can not be made on this basis alone. 



These characters carry the identification as far as the variety. If 

 it is desired to determine the subvariety, it is necessary to establish 

 the minor variations. This is not always possible, but fortunately 

 the most common variations are the easier to determine. The more 

 rare" variations may be ignored with safety in 99 per cent of the 

 samples. The varieties with wide outer glumes can not be sepa- 

 rated from those with narrow glumes unless internodes from the 

 rachis are present with the outer glumes attached. This is usually 

 the case; but even if it were not, there is small chance of a wide- 

 glumed variety being present. 



Any difficulty encountered in the determination of color is usually 

 confined to the separation of blue and white. As the blue color in 

 hulled barleys is located in the aleurone layer, it is best to strip the 

 lemmas from two or three grains, for weathering often so discolors 

 them that it is impossible to see the blue color beneath. Purple 

 color in these varieties is found in the glumes. In naked varieties 

 the color is more readily seen, but is difficult of determination in 

 immature specimens. Until well ripened, some white varieties have 

 a greenish cast which might easily be confused with the blue. The 

 blue and purple do not develop until near maturity. In blue barleys 

 especially the color may be very pale. In well-matured specimens, 

 however, there is little difficulty in making the determination. 



The smoothness or roughness of the awns can be told if fragments 

 of awns persist on any of the kernels. If the lateral nerves of the 

 lemma are very scabrous, it may be taken for granted that the awns 

 were rough. Smooth-awned varieties are so rare, however, that this 

 may be disregarded. 



Density usually can be determined from thrashed specimens, al- 

 though not with absolute certainty. In extreme cases the identifica- 

 tion is made easily. As shown in Plate IV, figure 2, there is a 

 transverse crease at the base of the lemma in the dense varieties. In 

 the lax ones there is a small horseshoe- shaped depression. The dense 

 varieties of 6-rowed barley usually have the base of the lemma elon- 

 gated, especially in the lateral florets. In most varieties of inter- 



