The YOtfHC NATURALIST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Part 59. OCTOBER, 1884. Vol. 5. 



BARLEY 



(Hordeum). 

 By J. P. Soutter, Bishop Auckland. 



ii T ET husky wheat the haughs adorn, 

 And aits set up their awnie horn, 

 And peas or beans, at e'en or morn, 



Perfume the plain, 

 Leeze me on thee, John Barleycorn, 

 Thou king o' grain ! 



On thee aft Scotland chows her cood 

 In souple scones, the wale o' food ! 

 Or tumbling in the boiling flood 



Wi' kail and beef; [blood, 

 But when thou pours thy strong heart's 



There thou shines chief." 



In temperate regions, ever since man 

 gradually left the pursuit of game for 

 the practice of agriculture as a means 

 of livelihood, the cereals have held the 

 foremost place in his list of food sup- 

 plies. The most important and best 

 known of these are wheat, barley, oats, 

 and rye. Formerly, when each country 

 was nearly, if not entirely, dependent 

 upon the produce of its own soil for 

 filling its granaries, these plants held 

 a position in the reverse order in which 

 they are now esteemed. Since coloni- 

 zation, cultivation and commerce have 

 developed the wheat-producing coun- 

 tries of the world and brought them 



into closer connection with the older 

 communities. Wheat has pre-eminently 

 come to be regarded as the " staff of 

 life," and except for special and re- 

 stricted purposes is now ousting the 

 other crops from the field. Thus barley 

 is now almost exclusively grown for 

 the purpose of being made into malt, 

 and thence by the mysterious processes 

 of brewing and distillation into those 

 national beverages — the delight of 

 drinkers and the despair of temperance 

 reformers. These common cereals, as 

 well as maize, and the proline rice, 

 which, judged by the number of human 

 beings it supports, is the most impor- 

 tant plant the earth brings forth, be- 

 long to the Natural Order Graminea, 

 as do the great majority of the plants 

 by which herbivorous animals sustain 

 their existence. It is to the true 

 grasses of this order that the meadows 

 of Britain owe their peculiar rich 

 greenery, and the soft, velvety texture 

 of its lawns are due to the fact that 

 the shorter grasses are mown or eaten 

 the denser does the herbage become. 

 This is accounted for by the formation 

 of side shoots when the main stem has 

 been injured. It is a curious fact that 



