Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 472. Cl. 3. Ord. 2. Triandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Gramineae. G. 151. Calyx lateral, two-valved, one-flowered, three-fold. Species 3. H. distichon. Common Barley. Viborg- Cereal, 35. t. 3. Officinal. Hordeum, Lond. Hordei distichi semina, Edin.

Hordeum distichum : semina decorticata, Dub. Barley.

Syn. Orge monde (F.), Gerstengraupen (G.), Gemeenegerst (Dutch), Byg (Dan.), Korn (Swed.), Jeezmien (Pol.), Orzo (I.), Cebada (S), Cevada (Port.), low (H.), Barlee Arise (Tarn.), Dhourra (Arab.).

Barley is asserted by Reidesel to be a native of Tartary, but the fact is not well ascertained.1 It is an annual plant, and cultivated in almost every country of Europe. This species, which is the most generally cultivated in Britain, H. distichon, has a long flat spike or ear, with a double row of defective or male florets on each flat side, and a single row of fertile florets at each edge. The valves of the calyx, or outer chaff, are linear, and one half shorter than the corolla or inner chaff, which terminates in a straight, serrated awn or beard, sixteen times its own length. When ripe, the husk is coriaceous, angular, and continues close about the grain, which, when freed from it, is ovate, grooved, and angular.

Barley is used as an article of food, but less so than it was in former times; and it is now chiefly cultivated for the purpose of forming malt liquors and ardent spirits. It is formed into pearl-barley by two different operations; the barley is first spread out and moistened; and then, in this state, by means of machinery, is denuded of the cuticle, or shelled. It is afterwards rounded in a mill, which at the same time polishes the little granules into which it is formed.

1 Carden asserts that it is a native of Athol, in Scotland. Diodorus Siculus refers it to Egypt, where, he says, Osiris found it wild, and first cultivated it.

Qualities.-Barley, in its natural state is oval, oblong, pointed at one end, obtuse at the other, and furrowed longitudinally : it has a mild, sweetish taste. Pearl-barley is inodorous, and has a slightly sweetish taste. It consists of roundish granules of a pearly whiteness, composed almost entirely of starch, with some gluten, mucilage, and saccharine matter1, which are dissolved in boiling water. The decoction very soon runs into the acetous fermentation. Barley is never used medicinally in substance.

Officinal preparations.-Decoctum Hordei, L. E. D. Decoctum Hordei compositum, L. D.