24 BRITISH GRASSES. 



T. repens, our native Couch-grass, will be described 

 among the British grasses. 



Wheat contains the largest portion of gluten of any of 

 the cereals, a very large quantity of starch, a good amount 

 of albumen, gum, and oil ; it is the most nourishing and 

 useful of grains. Its uses are manifold. Bread made 

 of the whole grain, ground together, is most wholesome 

 and nourishing ; that of fine flour, the bran being with- 

 drawn, is less wholesome, though fairer to the sight. 

 Bread is an article of such vital importance to rich and 

 poor that hardly any other use to which the grain can 

 be put seems worthy of mention. Yet there are articles 

 of diet of considerable importance and very agreeable, 

 such as maccaroni, vermicelli, semolina, etc., which are 

 not unworthy forms of wheat-flour. Only in the north 

 country is the " creed wheat " valued, which forms the 

 old Saxon dish called "frornenty," so characteristic of 

 old Christmas. Then, though the days of cambric ruffles 

 are gone by, yet even the lords of the creation scarcely 

 rise superior to starched linen, and here again we have 

 to apply to the wheat grain. Even the penny letter owes 

 some of its completeness to the flour of wheat, for the 

 adhesive mixture upon the back of " the Queen's head " 

 is " British gum," and that is made chiefly of wheat 

 flour. 



Barley counts next in value to wheat. The barley fa- 

 mily is distinguished from the wheats by its one-flowered 

 spikelets, which are arranged in clusters of threes. 



It is probable that all the kinds of cultivated barley 

 are varieties of one species, Hordeum distichum. In 

 the normal type the middle spikelet of the three is alone 

 perfect, and to this group belong all the varieties of 

 two-rowed barley. When the lateral spikelets contain 



