246 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



to the potent poison of alcohol 

 It is almost sufficient to make one give 

 credence to the • statement, which is 

 gravely advanced by so sedate a philo- 

 sopher as Elihu Burritt, that growing 

 oats can be transformed into barley, 

 and by the very simple process of sow- 

 ing oats late in J une, and the first year 

 cutting it down repeatedly so as to 

 prevent it flowering, and then if allowed 

 to flower the second year the produce 

 will be barley ! And yet people grave- 

 ly shake their heads at the " Origin of 

 Species." 



Owing to hardiness of its constitu- 

 tion enabling it to resist cold, barley 

 will grow and ripen at an altitude and 

 high latitude which is fatal to all the 

 other cereals. Thus in the Scandina- 

 vian peninsula it is grown as far north 

 as 70°, whilst oats and rye stop at 65° 

 and wheat can not be profitably grown 

 beyond 62°. In the South American 

 plateau of the Andes barley occasionally 

 ripens at the enormous height of over 

 12,000 feet, whilst the other cereals 

 can only be grown as a green crop for 

 fodder. From this cause barley was, 

 and still is, an important crop in the 

 north of Scotland : it was formerly 

 much esteemed and generally used as 

 an article of food, which is celebrated 

 in Burn's stirring song : — 



" Bannocks o' bear meal, 



Bannocks o' barley ; 

 Here's to the Highlandman's 



Bannocks o' barley ! 



Wha in a brulzie 



Will first cry a parley ? 

 Never the lads wi' 



The bannocks o' barley." 

 Egypt has been claimed as the 

 native country of barley, because the 

 Egyptians made wine from it at a very 

 early period. And it was certainly 

 known to the ancient Hebrews, for it 

 is frequently mentioned in the Bible. 

 During that strife of heroes- — the Tro- 

 jan war — the Greeks fed their war- 

 horses on barley : — 



" And champing golden grain, the horses 

 stood 



Hard by their chariots, waiting for the 

 dawn." 



To the Eomans we owe the generic 

 name of Hordeum, which was their 

 name for barley, but the meaning and 

 derivation of the term seems obscure. 



The young botanist may readily 

 recognise the four indigenous species 

 of barley by their resemblance to the 

 cultivated form, particularly by the 

 characteristic long awns which have 

 no equal amongst our native plants. 

 The most common and widely distri- 

 buted is the mouse or wall barley (E, 

 murinum J, which, as its name implies, 

 is very fond of growing beside walls, 

 in dry, sandy, waste ground by houses 

 and villages. Its head of flowers is 

 very similar to common barley, but it 

 only attains the height of about a foot. 

 The sea barley (R. maritimum) closely 

 resembles the last species, but it is 

 entirely restricted to sandy sea-shores. 



