BARLEY. 



7 



Barley. Hordeum distichon. (Nat. Ord. Graminace(B,) 

 Another grass^ the seeds of which are of immense import- 

 ance to man ; besides this^ the common species^ there are 

 three others more or less cultivated. Barley has long figured 

 as an economic product of the Vegetable Kingdom. 

 Amongst the Egyptians it was well known, and its discovery 

 and first culture was by Diodorus Siculus and others at- 

 tributed to Osiris. Pliny, in his ' Natural History/ says 

 barley was the most ancient food of mankind. In the 

 Book of Exodus, dating fifteen hundred years before Christ, 

 we find it mentioned as an ordinary crop, thus, in ch. ix., 

 verse 31, ^^And the flax and the harley was smitten: for 

 the barley was in the ear, and the flax was boiled and we 

 find it again mentioned in Euth ii. 17, ^^She gleaned in 

 the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned, and 

 it was about an ephah of barley .^^ Its native country is un- 

 known, but by some authors is supposed to be Tartary. The 

 common names of the four species are Long-eared or Common 

 Barley (ZT. distichon)^ Spring Barley {H, vulgare). Winter 

 Barley {H. hexastichon), and Sprat or Battledore Barley {H, 

 zeocriton) . The Spring barley is in Scotland usually styled 

 Bere or Bigg ; it is an inferior kind, but valuable from its 

 thriving on poor soil and in exposed localities. 



