244 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST 



played to catch the pollen floating 

 in the air, for they are all susceptible 

 to damp and darkness, and close up 

 at once in rainy or cloudy weather. 



In Hordeum there are always three 

 spikelets, springing from the same 

 point of the infloresence, in common 

 barley only the central spikelet of the 

 three is fully developed, and as the 

 clusters of spikelets are given off alter- 

 nately on opposite sides of the rachis, 

 it gives the whole infloresence a two 

 ranked appearance, hence it is known 

 as two-rowed barley. Producing as it 

 does a superior quality and yield of 

 grain, it has completely ousted from 

 from the fields of the farmer, bere, or 

 four-rowed barley, in which the two 

 lateral spikelets of each cluster were 

 fertile and the central abortive, as also 

 six-rowed barley, in which every spike- 

 let bore a grain. Taking a head of 

 common barley, and removing a cluster 

 of spikelets, we observe the two lateral 

 ones reduced to a few scales, so we 

 leave them on one side. In the cen- 

 tral spikelet we note that the two 

 glumes instead of enveloping the spike- 

 let are represented by two small bristles, 

 and on the inner face of the spikelet 

 is another small bristle, which is the 

 abortive rudiment of a second floret. 

 In the perfect floret the outer palea is 

 much the largest, it is incurved and 

 overlaps the inner one, and after ferti- 

 lisation they enclose and become firm- 

 ly adherent to the fruit, The most 



conspicuous feature of the outer palea 

 of barley is the characteristic awn, 

 which is often nine inches in length, 

 and densely barbed on both edges with 

 forward pointing prickles. Its chief 

 utility to the plant is, doubtless, as a 

 means of dispersing the seeds by 

 attaching them to the coats of animals, 

 and also to aid in burying the seed 

 when it is deposited in the ground. 

 As an organ of defence they must help 

 to render the plant repellent to brow- 

 sing animals, indeed the eating of 

 barley-straw often causes sores in the 

 mouths of animals, from portions of 

 the jagged awns getting under their 

 tongues. When green and growing 

 the awns are very tough and elastic, 

 but they become rigid and brittle when 

 mature and dry. It is a well known 

 mischievous frolic of rural school boys 

 to cunningly insert a barley awn under 

 the clothes of a comrade, and watch 

 his ineffectual wriggles to free himself 

 of the intruder. At the period of 

 flowering, which is just when the ear 

 has emerged from the sheath of the 

 uppermost leaf, the two palete gape 

 and expose the three stamens, the fila- 

 ments of which are as slender as the 

 threads of a spider's web, but the 

 anthers are large, oblong, and delicately 

 balanced by the middle, so that they 

 dance and sway to every breath of the 

 wind, then open by slits at the apex and 

 allow the pollen to fall out. At this 

 stage the ovary is a small squat, top- 



