496
new varieties in particular, might be satisfactorily ascertain-ed.
Blended bear — I his is a mixture of two-rowed barlev andbear or big, which, under the name of llammcl or Blandered-bear, is very commonly cultivated in Fifeshire . When thesetwo kinds arc grown in separate fields and mixed together,they will not spring equally, either when sown or malted; butafter they have been cultivated for some time in a mixed state,they come at last to have no perceptible difference in theserespects. The quality of this mixture seems to hold a mid-dle place between barley and bear, being superior to the lat-ter, and not so good as the former. This may be occasionedby the mutual influence of their pollen or fecundating dust,producing a reciprocal approximation of their natures andqualities *.
Naked barley. —This species, the hordcum nudum of bota-nists, is a tworowed barley, in which the grains separate na-turally from the husks, and appear on the barn-floor, in thesame form as common barley which has been shelled at themill. There is likewise another sort of barley, having thesame property, the hordcum cccleste of Linnaeus , but whichapproaches nearer to the four-rowed species or bear, as it hasfour rows of seeds in the spike or car. These two kinds arecultivated in some of the northern parts of Europe , but havenever been made known in this country f.
The reporter received in 1800 about a tea-cup full of nakedbarley, which he drilled thin after turnips in that season, andsowed the produce in 1810 alongside of the ordinary two-rowed barley. In both years, the appearance of the strawdid not equal one half of that of ordinary barley ; and thiscircumstance occasioned him entirely to neglect prosecutingthe experiment, because in every grain crop, the straw is ofthe utmost importance to raise manure for the subsequentcrops.
* Fife Iiep. p. 1GB.
f Walk, llebrid. p. 224.