'HORDE U M. 27 Q 
bread, fufilciently light, and fo retentive of moifture, as 
to.be as good, twelve or fourteen days after baking, as 
wheaten bread on the fourth day. And twelve pounds 
of barley and the fame quantity of wheat flour, equally 
fine, being made into bread, and baked in the fame oven, 
the wheaten loaf weighed fifteen, and the barley eighteen, 
pounds. Two bufliels of it, being malted, were brewed 
into a half-barrel of ale, and another of finall beer, both 
of which proved very good. Siberian barley has a broader 
blade, of a much deeper green, than common barley, at 
-firft; coming up ; the ears are ihorter, having only from 
five to nine grains in length, whereas thofe of the com¬ 
mon fort have from nine to thirteen; and in all ftages it 
is a fortnight forwarder than common barley. The two 
forts being fown in the fame field on the 28th of April, 
1774., three bufliels of each, the common barley produced 
thirty-fix bufliels and a half, weighing fifty-two pounds 
each ; and the Siberian produced thirty-two bulhels, weigh¬ 
ing fifty-eight pounds each : but the foil was very dry, 
and much inclined to a gravel, which was to the difad- 
vantage of the latter, for it requires a richer land. 
2. Hordeum hexaftichon, winter or fquare barley, bear, 
or big: all the florets hermaphrodite and awned, the grains 
placed regularly in fix rows. Rarely cultivated in the 
i'outhern parts of England ; but in the northern counties, 
and in Scotland, it is generally fown, being much hardier 
than the other fpecies, To will bear the cold ; this has its 
grains difpofed in fix rows. The grain is large and plump, 
but it is not fo good for malting, which is the reafon for 
its not being cultivated in the fouthern parts of England, 
where the other forts, which are much better for that pur- 
pofe, thrive well. 
3. Hordeum diftichon, or common barley: lateral flo¬ 
rets male and awnlefs ; grains angular, imbricated. The 
third fort is the long-eared barley, which is cultivated in 
many parts of England, and is an exceeding good fort; 
but fome farmers pbjeft to it, becaufe they lay, the ears 
being long and heavy, it is more apt to lodge. This has 
the grains regularly ranged in a double row', lying over 
each other like tiles on a houfe, or the lcales of fillies. 
The hulk or chaff of this barley is alfo very thin, and is 
much efteemed for malting. 
( 3 . H. nudum. Mortimer fays, that they cultivated in 
Staffordfbire a fort oi naked barky, or wheat-barley, the ear 
ftiaped like barley, but the grain like wheat; that it is 
much fown at Rowley, Hamftal, and Redmore, where they 
call it French barley, that it makes good bread, and good 
malt, and yields a good increafe. No mention being made 
pf this grain in Mr. Pitt’s View of the Agriculture of this 
County, drawn up for the confideration of the Board of 
Agriculture, and printed in 1796 ; we may conclude that 
it is no longer cultivated there. Villars delcribes it as 
having a larger finer grain, the weight and fize of wheat, 
and feparating from the hulk, whence its name; he adds, 
that it is nicer refpefting foil, and more difficult to cul¬ 
tivate, but yields a larger produce, and is of a better qua¬ 
lity, than common barley. 
4. Hordeum zeocriton, fprat or battledore barley : late¬ 
ral florets male and awnlefs; grains angular, fpreading, 
corticated. This has Ihorter and broader ears than either 
of the other forts; the awns, or beards, are longer, and 
the grains are placed cjofer together; and, the awns being 
long, the birds cannot lb eafily get out the grains. It 
feldom grows fo tail as the other fpecies; and the ft raw, 
being Ihorter and coarfer, is not veiy good fodder for 
cattle. 
II. Graffes. 5. Hordeum bulbofum, or bulbous barley- 
grafs: florets in threes, fertile, awned ; involucres briftle- 
Ihaped, ciiiate. So named from its bulbous roots, wrapped 
up in whitifh or brownilh broad membranaceous fibrous 
coats, and having- ftrong fibres hanging from them. Culms 
two or three, from a foot or eighteen inches to three and 
even four feet high in different fituations, with four or five 
joints; the flieaths of the lower leaves hirfute with Inert 
clofe hairs; of the upper fimooth and limited, ending in 
a thin, white, fubdiaphanous, membrane (orligule), about 
half a line in length. Leaves a fpa-n or a foot, lbmetiir.es 
only a hand, long, a line and a half or two lines-wide, 
rough, and finely toothletted at the- edge, having very fliort 
-hairs on both lurfaces, but not- fo many on foe lower. 
Spike narrow, three or four, fonictimes near fix, inches 
long, and three or four lines broad. The two lateral flo¬ 
rets in each fet are on a pedicel half a line in length,find 
are themieives near half an inch long, with awns near an 
inch in length, flatted at the bottom; the middle floret is 
leiflle, about five lines in length, with the outer glume 
ending in an awn ufually more than an inch long, and at 
the bafe two other awns eight or ten lines long. Native 
of Italy and the Levant. Scheuchzer found it about 
Rome, in May. 
6. Hordeum murinum, or wall barley-gfafs : la'teral flo¬ 
rets male awned, middle involucres ciiiate. Common wall 
barley-grafs, way-barley, way-bennet, or rather way-bent, 
called alfo wild rye or rye-grafs, has an annual root; nu¬ 
merous Items a foot or eighteen inches in height, round, 
fmooth, frequently branching at the bottom, where they 
are procumbent, and bend at the joints-; thefe are about 
five in number, fwell out, and are either paler than the 
reft of the culm, or tinged with purple ; the upper part of 
them is ereft. Leaves from three or four to fix inches in 
length, and a quarter of an inch in breadth, covered with 
a fort down on both iides. Spikes from two to three inches 
long, pale green ; the middle floret of each let is fertile 
and fertile; the lateral ones are male, and on very Ihort 
pedicels; all three are alike in fize and lhape, or forne- 
times the latter are a little Imaller. The outer valve of 
the corolla ends'in an awn an inch or an inch and a half 
in length, and rough when handled from the point down¬ 
wards ; the inner valve is truncate at the end, and fligbtlv 
emarginate ; from the bale fprings a ftraight awn, the 
length of the filaments. This is a very common grafs by 
the fide of paths and under.walls, whence its trivial names' 
both in Latin and Englifli. t It flowers during the greater 
part of the fummer. In the file of Thanet it is laid to be 
well known to the innkeepers by the name of fquirrel'-tail 
graft. They find that, if horfes feed on it fome time, the 
beards ftick into their gums, and make them fo fore, that 
they are in danger of being ftarved. The gentleman who 
related this faft, added, that on the road he had a bill put 
into his hand, fignifying, that at fuch an inn travellers 
might depend on having hay without any mixture of 
fquirrel-taii grafs. Wall barley-grafs never being found 
in the body of a meadow, it may be doubted whether it 
is not rather the next fpecies which produced this bad 
effect; and, if fo, that muft not be recommended for cul¬ 
ture. It is an old notion that this grafs is barley dege¬ 
nerated, though it bears more refemblance to rye. Haller 
ferioully combats this error, but it is furely now too vul¬ 
gar an one to be neceflary to contradift it. 
7. Hordeum pratenfe, or meadow barley-grafs : all the 
florets awned, the lateral ones male, all the invoiucels 
rugged. Meadow barley-grafs, from its refemblance 'to 
rye named by Johnfon rye-grafs, was fuppofed by Linnaeus 
to be nothing more than a variety of the preceding. Ray 
obferved long fince, that it differs in being much taller, 
and having Ihorter fpikes and awns. Its height is almoft 
double that of the other. The fpike is more green, only 
half the length of that, fquare, with the awns of the calyx 
as long as thofe of the corolla. The anthers alfo are thres 
times as long as in H. murinum, and yellow, whereas hi 
that they are bluifh, and almoft fquare. Our Englifh au¬ 
thors mark it as perennial ; but Villars takes it to be an¬ 
nual. Native of Sweden, Denmark, France, Swilferland', 
England, and probably moft parts of Europe, in good 
meadows, of which it lometimes forms a confiderable por¬ 
tion. filler affirms that this is a very good grafs for 
paftureS, and has perennial roots, with leafy ftaiks that 
do nqt become ftiff and harlh 5 and that, if duly rolled, 
the 
