HORDEUM VULGARE, Unn.' 



[Firfe Plate IL] 



English, barley; Vernacular, jau. 



Description. An annual herb belonging to the tribe Hordeece of the natural order Graminece. Steins many, 



quite smooth, 2-3 ft. high. Leaves few, the upper one close to the spike ; sheaths smooth, striate ; 

 ligule very short ; blade of leaf linear lanceolate, rounded at the base, tapering gradually to the apex, 

 glaucous green. Spikes linear oblong, compressed, 2-2^ in. long (without the awns) ; spikelets sessile, 

 arranged in threes on two sides of a flattened rachis, lateral ones occasionally barren and rudimentary 

 (var. distichon) ; glumes 2, small, setaceous, and awn-like, enclosing the three spikelets ; pales 2, lower 

 one firm, 5-ribbed, rounded on the back and ending in a long stiff awn rough with forward prickles ; 

 lower pale a little smaller than the upper, bifid, 2-veined, and with the margins inflexed. Lodicules 

 2, entire, hairy. Stamens 3, exserted. Ovary hairy on the top. Stigmas 2, feathery. Fruit (the 

 grain) usually with the pales adherent to it. 



Varieties. T\\Q different varieties of barley may be broadly grouped according as the ears con- 



taitt two rows or six rows of grain. The six-rowed variety {Hordeum hexastichon) is the 

 one ordinarily grown in this country, bearing grains in sets of threes, alternately disposed 

 on each side of the rachis or flower stalk. It may be easily distinguished from wheat, 

 to the bearded variety of which it bears a superficial resemblance, by the glumes or scales 

 which surround each set of three grains being reduced to thin hair-like appendages, 

 instead of forming a broad covering as is the case with wheat. The two-rowed variety 

 {^Hordeum distichon) is commonly cultivated in England, but rare in this country. There 

 is a curious sub-variety of two-rowed barley in which the flower scales do not adhere to 

 the grains, forming a continuous covering as with ordinary barley, but drop off in thresh- 

 ing, leaving the grains naked like those of wheat. This sub-variety is botanically known 

 as Hordeum gymnodistichon, and bears the vernacular names of paighamhari or rasuli, in- 

 dicating apparently its introduction from Arabia. It is reported as grown largely in the 

 hills near Kotgarh, but is rare in the plains. A field of it on the Cawnpore Farm in 

 1879 yielded, with manure and irrigation in moderate quantity, 21^ maunds of grain to 

 the acre. 



Distribution. The total area under barley and mixtures, in which it has a place, in the 30 tem- 



porarily settled N.-W. Provinces Districts, amounts to 47^ lakhs of acres, which is about 

 20 per cent, of their total cropped area, and 42 per cent, of the total area under rabi 

 crops. It forms an important crop in every portion of the Provinces, being most com- 

 monly grown alone in the Districts of the Benares Division ; mixed with wheat, in 

 Rohilkhand, and mixed with gram, in Agra and Allahabad. 



Seasons. Barley is a rabi or spring crop, being sown in October and reaped in March or 



April. It is the crop most commonly grown on land which was cropped in the preced- 



• References ;— Linn. Sp. PL Ed. I. 84 ; Powell Punj. Prod. 228 ; Bentley nnd Trimen Med. PL 293 ; H. hexastichon, 

 Linn. U. distichon, Linn. H. cceleste, Viborg (beardless barley). 



C 



