32 BULLETIN 137, L T . S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
at once to weak solutions. It immediately became blue when treated 
with the alkali and became red again when the acid was applied. 
The chloral-hydrate test here and in all other instances was less 
definite than in the case with most anthocyanin deposits. Upon its 
application the red color faded yery slowly, until the natural yellow 
of the glumes became apparent. The red immediately returned when 
acid was added. There is no reasonable doubt that the color in these 
barleys is due to anthocyanin. 
A naked barley with a yiolet or purple pericarp was examined. 
This color was also readily demonstrated to be anthocyanin. In this 
instance, as in some others, the pigment was found both in the peri- 
carp and in the aleurone layer. In the former tissue it was red and 
in the latter blue. TThen treated with acid the red was unchanged, 
of course, while the blue also became red, greatly intensifying the 
effect. 
In all barleys studied the anthocyanin was always red in the peri- 
carp and glumes and always blue in the aleurone layer. In other 
words, the resting condition of the protoplasm was alkaline, while 
the inert tissue seemed to be in an acid condition. 
A new form of naked barley isolated from an Abyssinian importa- 
tion gaye striking testimony of the taxonomic yalue of the distinc- 
tion between the two pigments. This selection has a dense black 
pericarp. It was absolutely resistant to all concentrations of re- 
agents, showing the pigment to be melaninlike. As far as the writer 
can learn, there is no other naked barley of the nutans group in 
which this pigment occurs, and this botanical form has no published 
description. 
The last yariety studied was Hordeum vulgare pallidum coerules- 
cens. This yariety has the peculiar blue color well known upon the 
market in Californian, Chilean, and similar barleys. The color has 
been held to be yariable by both grain dealers and scientists. Eegel 
explains its lack of stability by calling it a hybrid form. Examina- 
tion showed the color to be due to a deposit of anthocyanin in the 
aleurone layer. This layer was readily changed to red by the appli- 
cation of acid and was as readily made blue again by the use of alkali. 
The stability of this and other forms was studied in the fields. 
Anthocyanin seems likely to be found in any plant and in any part 
of the plant. It seems to appear abnormally in cases of malnutrition 
and is yery likely to occur in conductiye tissues that are ceasing to 
be functional. It has. howeyer, a normal phase in the grain. In 
certain naked forms its stability is unquestioned, and, to the writer's 
mind, its yariability in coerulescens has been oyerestimated. The 
hybrid theory of Eegel in regard to coerulescens becomes untenable 
when two pigments are admitted. If an intermediate, it could be 
so only between a white yariety and a black one. This is eyidentlv 
