| by maltsters. 
BARLEY. 339 
sembles the Tangier variety, but is not so strong 
in the straw.—The giant barley, Hordeum gugan- 
tewm, has been regarded as one of the most per- 
manent varieties of bere; yet it is characterized 
principally by its tallness, usually growing to the 
height of about four feet, while bere grows to 
the height of only three. It was introduced to 
Great Britain from the Levant. 
The black winter barley, called in France orge 
carée noir, and sometimes called botanically Hor- 
deum nigrum, has so marked a character as to 
have been sometimes treated as a distinct spe- 
cies. Its spike is long; its grains are from 60 to 
70 in number, and larger than those of bere; its 
paleze have a black or dark-bluish colour, and 
are alluded to in its distinctive name of ‘ black ;’ 
and its awns are long and dark-coloured, and ad- 
here to the grain. In spite of the blackness of 
its paleze, it yields as white flour as any other 
sort of barley. It is very prolific, but is not liked 
It is less hardy, but more early, 
and better adapted for spring-sowing than the 
white four-rowed winter barley ; yet, if not sown 
very early in spring, it vegetates as a biennial, 
| and will not run to seed till the following year. 
The French either sow it before the end of March, 
_ in order to reap its grain as an annual, or sow it 
_ in June and July in order to feed sheep with it, 
| and to enjoy its advantages as a biennial. 
The Siberian barley, or four and six rowed 
naked barley, is regarded sometimes as a variety 
of common barley under the name of [Hordeum 
vulgare nudum, and sometimes as a distinct spe- 
cies under the names of Hordeum celeste and Hor- 
deum gymno-hexastichon. Its ear is shaped like 
that of bere, but is more decidedly six-rowed ; 
the grains are more numerous than those of bere, 
and considerably smaller than those of other kinds 
of naked barley ; and its awns are rather upright, 
easily detached when ripe, and so readily falling 
off with the paleze or husk as to render the bar- 
ley, in technical phrase, ‘naked,’ like wheat. It 
was introduced to Great Britain in 1768, and 
promised, for a time, to become a favourite 
grain, and to pass into general cultivation. But, 
whether from prejudice, from bad management 
in the trials of it, or from ascertained unsuit- 
ableness to the soils and climate where it was 
tried, it soon ceased to be much noticed. Yet it 
is extensively cultivated in the north of Europe, 
in Germany, and in some parts of France; it is 
generally held in high esteem, on the continent, 
for its fertility; it is regarded, in some parts of 
Germany, as the most valuable kind of barley 
known; it obtained its distinctive botanic name 
of celeste from the French, in compliment to its 
supposed eminent productiveness ; it has been 
much extolled by several distinguished agricul- 
tural writers of the continent, particularly by 
the eminent and well-known Thaer; it ripens in 
our country a week earlier than bere; and it 
both deserves attention and a fair trial in the 
improved agricultural districts of Great Britain, 
and might be found a valuable acquisition, as a 
substitute for bere, throughout the Scottish 
Highlands and Hebrides. 
The Nepaul barley, Himmalaya naked barley, 
or Nepaul wheat, is generally treated as a distinct 
species, under the name of Hordeum nepalense or 
Hordeum trifurcatum. It grows wild on the Him- 
malayan mountains, near the line of perpetual 
snow, and was introduced thence to Great Britain 
in 1817. It was regarded as wheat by the parties 
who introduced it; and even yet is sometimes 
called Nepaul wheat; yet not only is it a true 
barley, but it differs from the Siberian kind, or 
Hordeum celeste, principally in the form of its 
awns, and is, like that kind, six-rowed, naked, 
early, and prolific. Its awns are very short, and 
generally bent down upon the chaff or inner 
palese, while the wings of the outer pales rise 
to about one-eighth of an inch on each side, and 
form with the awn a sort of three-forked termi- 
nation, which is alluded to in the specific name 
trifurcatum. 'The three-forked termination, how- 
ever, is not a permanent character; for the grain, 
after being cultivated for some time in Britain, 
elongates its awns like those of Siberian barley, 
or even exhibits on one ear some grains with 
short awns and trifurcati, some with long and 
erect awns, and some with awns of intermediate 
length and form. The Nepaul barley is earlier 
than the Siberian ; its straw is short, and, under 
favourable culture, stiff and erect ; and its foli- 
age, when young, is broad, and of a glaucous green 
colour. 
The true six-rowed barley, Pomeranian barley, 
or six-rowed white winter barley, Hordewm hexz- 
astichon, is the coarsest in sample of all the bar- 
leys, but hardy and prolific. Professor Low re- 
gards it as simply the sprat barley, or Hordeum 
zeocriton, with all the side florets as well as the 
central ones fertile, and calls it six-rowed sprat 
barley, or Hordeum hexasticho-zeocriton. Its grains | 
are situated in six distinct and equidistant rows; 
and the lower ones spread out at nearly right 
angles with the rachis, so that the awns are ex- 
ceedingly divergent. All its florets are herma- 
phrodite and awned ; its spike is thicker and much | 
shorter than that of bere ; the number of grains 
in a spike or ear is about one-third greater than 
that in a spike of bere ; and its grains are long, 
and not well filied, and have the awns adhering | 
to them with great tenacity. This species is 
occasionally sown in France and in England as 
both a winter and a spring barley, and succeeds 
well under either treatment ; but it is usually a 
fortnight later in ripening than bere. No defined 
or marked varieties of it, or deviations from its | 
normal character, are in cultivation. 
The sprat, spelt, fan, battledore, rice, or Put- 
ney barley, or German rice, Hordeum zeocriton, is 
a two-rowed species, easily distinguished to even 
the unpractised eye by the spreading form of its 
spike, alluded to in the names fan and battledore. 
Its spike is short, broad at the base, and some- 
