8 



POPULAE ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Barley is not so much used for food now as formerly. 

 Barley-bread^ once tlie common food of the poorer classes, 

 is rarely seen in this country ; its great use is in making 

 beer and spirits. For beer it is first malted, (a process which 

 consists in inducing germination in the grain,) by soaking 

 it in water and applying heat; this causes the barley to 

 shoot, and as soon as vitality is once commenced, the starch 

 which existed abundantly in the grain is converted into 

 sugar, which, if fermented, is easily convertible into the 

 half-vinous beer, or, by a little increased fermentation, into 

 alcohol. The quantity grown in the United Kingdom is 

 very large, amounting to nearly 10,000,000 quarters; but 

 the imports are comparatively small, being only 51,000 

 quarters in 1851, all from the north of Europe. 



Rye. Secale cereale. (Nat. Ord. Graminacea.) 



A. native of the Caucaso-Caspian Desert. It is much cul- 

 tivated in the North of Europe, where it enters largely into 

 the food of the inhabitants; it is highly nutritive, but 

 nevertheless is not much used in this country, where a pre- 

 judice exists against it, arising very probably from the serious 

 and fatal accidents which have been occasioned by the vege- 

 table poison called Ergot of Rye. The ergot is a fungous 

 plant which affects the grain, considerably altering its di- 



