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 flannel goods, jam and wall-paper, and brewing, cotton spinning and weaving, leather-dressing and dyeing. Wine, timber and iron are important articles of commerce.

Bar-le-Duc was at one time the seat of the countship, later duchy, of Bar, the history of which is given below. Though probably of ancient origin, the town was unimportant till the 10th century when it became the residence of the counts.

. In the middle of the 10th century the territory of Bar (Barrois) formed a dependency of the Empire. In the 11th century its lords were only counts by title; they belonged to the house of Mousson (which also possessed the countships of Montbéliard and Ferrette), and usually fought in the French ranks, while their neighbours, the dukes of Lorraine, adhered to the German side. Theobald I., count of Bar, was an ally of Philip Augustus, as was also his son Henry II., who distinguished himself at the battle of Bouvines in 1214. But sometimes the counts of Bar bore arms against France. In 1301 Henry III. having made an alliance with Edward I. of England, whose daughter he had married, was vanquished by Philip the Fair, who forced him to do homage for a part of Barrois, situated west of the Meuse, which was called Barrois mouvant. In 1354 Robert, count of Bar, who had married the daughter of King John, was made marquis of Pont-à-Mousson by the emperor Charles IV. and took the title of duke of Bar. His successor, Edward III., was killed at Agincourt in 1415. In 1419 Louis of Bar, brother of the last-named, a cardinal and bishop of Châlons, gave the duchy of Bar to René of Anjou, the grandson of his sister Yolande, who married Isabella, duchess of Lorraine. Yolande of Anjou, who in 1444 had married Ferri of Lorraine, count of Vaudémont, became heiress of Nicholas of Anjou, duke of Calabria and of Lorraine, in 1473, and of René of Anjou, duke of Bar, in 1480; thus Lorraine, with Barrois added to it, once more returned to the family of its ancient dukes. United with Lorraine to France in 1634, Barrois remained, except for short intervals, part of the royal domain. It was granted in 1738 to Stanislaus Leszczynski, ex-king of Poland, and on his death in 1766 was once more attached to the crown of France.

 BARLETTA (anc. Barduli), a seaport town and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, on the E.S.E. coast, in the province of Bari, 34 m. W.N.W. of Bari by rail. Pop. (1901) 42,022. Its importance dates from the time of the Hohenstaufen. The Gothic church of S. Sepolcro was built at the close of the 12th century, and the Romanesque cathedral was begun at the same period, but added to later. In front of the former church stands a bronze statue, 14 ft. in height, of the emperor Heraclius. The castle behind the cathedral dates from 1537. The harbour is good. It was cleared by 508 sailing-vessels and 461 steamers, the latter with a total tonnage of 364,904 in 1904; the exports were of the value of £180,699 (principally wine, sulphur, oil, tartar and tartaric acid), and the imports £92,486 (coal, timber and sundries).

In the neighbourhood (between Andria and Corato), during the siege of Barletta by the French in 1503, the town being defended by the Spanish army, a combat took place between thirteen picked knights of Italy and France, which resulted in favour of the former: it has been celebrated by Massimo d’ Azeglio in his Disfida di Barletta. Seven miles to the N.W. are the salt-works of Barletta, now known under the name of Margherita di Savoia.

 BARLEY (Hordeum sativum), a member of the grass family, and an important cereal which belongs peculiarly to temperate regions. It originated from a wild species, H. spontaneum, a native of western Asia and has been cultivated from the earliest times. Three subspecies or races are recognized, (i.) H. sativum, subsp. distichum (described by Linnaeus as a distinct species, H. distichon), two-rowed barley. Only the middle spikelet of each triplet is fertile; the ear has therefore only two longitudinal rows of grain, and the spikes are strongly compressed laterally. This approaches most nearly to the wild stock, from which it is distinguished by the non-jointed axis and somewhat shorter awns. This is the race most commonly grown in the British Isles and in central Europe, and includes a large number of sub-races and varieties among which are the finest malting-barleys. The chief sub-races are (a) peacock, fan or battledore barley, described by Linnaeus as a distinct species, H. zeocriton, with erect short ears about 2 in. long, broad at the base and narrow at the tip, suggesting an open fan or peacock’s tail; (b) erect-eared barleys (var. erectum) with erect broad ears and closely-packed plump grains; (c) nodding barleys (var. nutans). The ripe ears of the last hang so as to become almost parallel with the stem; they are narrower and longer than in (b), owing to the grains being placed farther apart on the rachis; it includes the Chevalier variety, one of the best for malting purposes, (ii.) H. sativum, subsp. hexastichum, six-rowed barley (the H. hexastichon of Linnaeus). All the flowers of each triplet of spikelets on both sides of the rachis are fertile and produce ripe fruits; hence the ear produces six longitudinal rows of grain. The ears are short, erect, and the grain thin and coarse; the straw is also short. It is a hardy race, but owing to the poor quality of the grain is rarely met with in Great Britain, (iii.) H. sativum, subsp. vulgare, bere, bigg or four-rowed barley (the H. vulgare of Linnaeus). All the flowers of each triplet are fertile as in (ii.), but the rows are not arranged regularly at equal distances round the rachis. The central fruits of each triplet form two regular rows, but the lateral spikelets form not four straight single rows as in (ii.), but two regular double rows, the whole ear appearing irregularly four-rowed. This race seems to be of later origin than the others. The ears are erect, about 2 in. long, the grains thinner and longer than in the two-rowed race, and the awns stiff and firmly adhering to the flowering glume. The var. pallidum is the barley most frequently cultivated in northern Europe and northern Asia. This race was formerly used for malt and beer, but owing to its larger amount of gluten as compared with starch it is less adapted for brewing than the two-rowed sorts. To this belong the varieties naked barley (H. coeleste and H. nudum) and Himalayan barley (H. trifurcatum and H. aegiceras). In both the fruits fall out freely from the glume, and in the latter the awns are three-pronged and shorter than the grain.

Barley is the most hardy of all cereal grains, its limit of cultivation extending farther north than any other; and, at the same time, it can be profitably cultivated in sub-tropical countries. The opinion of Pliny, that it is the most ancient aliment of mankind, appears to be well-founded, for no less than three varieties have been found in the lake dwellings of Switzerland, in deposits belonging to the Stone Period. According to Professor Heer these varieties are the common two-rowed (H. distichum), the large six-rowed (H. hexastichum, var. densum), and the small six-rowed (H. hexastichum, var. sanctum). The last variety is both the most ancient and the most commonly found, and is the sacred barley of antiquity, ears of which are frequently represented plaited in the hair of the goddess Ceres, besides being figured on ancient coins. The cultivation of barley in ancient Egypt is indicated in Exod. ix. 31. Till within recent times barley formed an important source of food in northern countries, and barley cakes are still to some extent eaten. Owing, however, to its poverty in that form of nitrogenous compound called gluten, so abundant in wheat, barley-flour cannot be baked into vesiculated bread; still it is a highly-nutritious substance, the salts it contains having a high proportion of phosphoric acid. The following is the composition of barley-meal according to Von Bibra, omitting the salts:—

Barley is now chiefly cultivated for malting (see ) to prepare spirits and beer (see ), but it is also largely employed in domestic cookery. For the latter purpose the hard, somewhat flinty grains are preferable, and they are prepared by grinding off the outer cuticle which forms “pot barley.” When the attrition is carried further, so that the grain is reduced to small round pellets, it is termed “pearl barley.” Patent barley is either pot or pearl barley reduced to flour. Under the name decoctum hordei, a preparation of barley is included in the 