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GLUMALS. 27 GRASSES. 
2. T. westivum Linneeus.—(Wneat.) Fig. 52. 
Spike 4-cornered ; spikelets about 4-flowered ; palez ventricose, 
ovate, truncate, mucronate or awned, compressed under the 
point, rounded at the back; grain free. An annual. 
Habitat. Unknown. 
Quality. Grain nutritious. 
Uses. The flour forms wheaten bread. Bran, which is the pericarp, is 
emollient and demulcent, and even purgative, owing the latter quality 
to its mechanical action. 
Secate. Linneus. 
A spike. Spikelets 2-flowered, with a long- 
stalked rudiment of a third floret. Glumes 
subulate; otherwise like Triticum. 
1. S. cereale Linneus.—(Rrz.) Fig. 53. 
Glumes shorter than the spikelet. Rachis 
tough. 
Habitat. Commonly cultivated. 
Quality. Grain nutritious. 
Uses. The flour forms an inferior kind of bread. 
Ergot is the ovary, diseased by the attack of a 
parasitical fungus. See Orprum, p. 14. 
Lotium. Linneeus. 
A spike. Spikelets distichous, many-flowered, 
placed edgewise on the rachis. Glume 
solitary, or that next the rachis rudi- 
mentary. 
1. L. temulentum Linneus.—{DaRNeEt.) _ 
Glume as long or longer than the spikelet, 
which contains from 5 to 7 florets; florets when — 
in fruit elliptical, awned ; awn straight, longer than 
the palea. An annual. 
Habitat. Corn fields and by pathways. 
Quality. Grains narcotie and acrid, producing fatal consequences 
when mixed with flour, Darnel meal has been used for 
sedative poultices. 
N.B.—This is the only authentic instance of unwholesome _ 
qualities in the order of Grasses. The cases mentioned in the 20) 
“ Vegetable Kingdom” are all doubtful. As to Bromus catharti- 
cus, figured under the name of Guilno by Feuillée, there can be 
no doubt that his statement is a blunder. The grass he has 
figured is not distinguishable from B. secalinus ; the rhizome, in s 
which he says that purgative qualities reside, evidently, both by 
the figure and description, does not belong to any grass what-— 
ever; it may possibly be that of some purgative Sisyrinchium. 
