2nd. By _being let go wild_, they sink still lower, and gradually assume the external hairs, stiff awns, and poor grain of the wild oat. [Illustration: _Spikelet of the Wild Oat._[13]] [13] From _Popular Science Review_, vol. i. p. 10. CHAPTER XXVII. ON THE SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF BARLEY AND RYE. The cereal barley is found to offer three important forms, which can be best explained by the annexed diagramatic arrangement:— [Illustration: _Two-rowed—by abortion of four_ _Four-rowed—by abortion of two_ _Six-rowed—by fruition of all_ _the seeds of a spikelet._] The two-rowed barley has been named _Hordeum distichum_; and as we are inclined, with Professor Lindley, to the belief that this is the original from whence the other forms have sprung, we here quote the learned Professor’s remarks upon this and the probably allied forms:— “It is probable,” he says, “that all kinds of barley grown by farmers are varieties of one species, of which, the _H. distichum_ of Linnæus is the type. The spikelets of this genus always standing in threes, and the threes being placed back to back, it is evident that every ear of barley must consist of six rows of spikelets. If the middle spikelet of each set of threes is alone perfect, the side spikelets being abortive, we have _H. distichum_, the common two-rowed barley, and its many varieties; if the two-tuberal of each set is perfect, and the central spikelet imperfect, as sometimes happens, then we have four-rowed barley; if, on the other hand, all the spikelets are perfect, we have six-rowed barley, or _H. hexastichum_; but the cases of four-rowed barley have been merely accidental—they may be referred to the six-rowed form; and thus we have only two principal kinds of barley—namely, _H. distichum_ and _H. hexastichum_. “1. _H. distichum._—This is the only kind of barley that has been found apparently wild. We have now before us specimens gathered in Mesopotamia during Col. Chesney’s expedition to the Euphrates, with narrow ears, a little more than an inch long, exclusive of the awn, or four and a half inches awns included; and others from the ruins of Persepolis, with ears scarcely so large as starved rye. Both are straw-colour, but that from Mesopotamia has the glumes much more hairy than the other. The plant is also said to inhabit Tartary. The report that it grows wild in Sicily seems to have arisen from the Mediterranean _Ægilops ovata_ having been mistaken for it. To this species belong all the varieties, from one to sixteen, formerly mentioned under Barley; as also does No. 20, fig. 34[14]—the _H. zeocriton_, sprat or battledore barley, an undoubted result of domestication, chiefly remarkable for the ears being so much broader at the base than the point as to produce a long ovate figure. [14] See Morton’s _Cyclopædia of Agriculture_.