146 



Hordewm Zeocriton, so called from the Greek zea, a kind of wheat 

 supposed to be that now known as spelt, and krite, barley, was formerly 

 much cultivated in England, but is seldom seen at the present. The 

 comparative shortness of the ear seems to indicate the probability of 

 its being less productive than the more favoured varieties of the 

 common barley ; but it is more hardy, and better adapted to stiff 

 clayey soils than the preceding. The name of Putney barley is some- 

 times given to it by our seedsmen, in consequence of public attention 

 having been first attracted to it by some grower in the vicinity of the 

 village so called ; but it is better known by that of Battledore or sprat 

 (spread) barley, in allusion to the form of the spike with its widely 

 spreading awns. In some parts of Germany it is largely cultivated, 

 the grain being greatly esteemed as a substitute for rice, hence it is 

 occasionally met with in England as an imported article under the 

 name of rice barley, or German rice, being used like the pot barley, 

 as an ingredient for puddings, broths, &c. Whether really a distinct 

 species, or only a permanent variety, is as before remarked, p. 144, 

 equivocal. 



Hordewm gymnodistichum bears a corresponding relation to the 

 common spring or summer barley, to that which Avena nuda, the 

 hill-oat, does to A. sativa, and its claim to rank as a species is equally 

 problematical. It is not an object of cultivation in these islands. 



HoKDEUM HEXASTicHUM. Winter Barley. Bere. Bigg. Plate 

 CXXI. Fig. 2. 



Spike sub-cylindrical. Spikelets aU fertile ; fertile flowers in six 

 rows, all awned. Awns somewhat spreading. Paleaa coherent to the 

 fruit. 



Hordeum hexastichum, Linnceus. Wildenow. Generally adopted. 



The history of this species, if such it, really be, is quite as obscure 

 as that_ of our other kinds of grain. It is pre-eminently the barley of 

 cold cHmates, as H. distichum may be said to be that of temperate and 

 warmer, and is the one the cultivation of which accompanies that of 

 the oat in Swedish and Norwegian Lapland, even within the polar 

 circle. Ripening much more readily than the preceding, and being 

 hardier, so as to stand through the winter, unless under very un- 

 favourable circumstances, it is more commonly grown on the Continent 

 than with us ; but the grain is lighter and otherwise inferior to that of 

 our ordinary spring-sown barley. Cultivation in different climates has 

 led to the production of many varieties, some of which have been more 

 highly praised, perhaps, than after experience has justified when tested 

 by our English agriculturists. Its chief value seems to consist in its 

 adaptation to more exposed situations and poorer soils than those 

 required by the spring or summer barley ; the latter indeed is a grain 

 suited to a higher system of cultivation than is yet extant in most of 



