GRASS TRIBE 93 
not common in Eastern Scotland, is found throughout England on walls, 
cottages, and by roadsides, but rarely occurring among our meadow-grasses. 
Though not flowering till midsummer, yet it gives early a large quantity of 
herbage. The stem is a foot or a foot and a half high, the spike about two 
inches long, and the leaves are flat and rather rough. Both this and the 
next plant seem to be known by the name of Squirrel-tail Grass, and though 
there is considerable nutriment in the foliage, yet so much do the prickly 
awns injure the mouths of horses, that one of the greatest recommendations 
to an inn in the Isle of Thanet used to be, that the hay was without any 
admixture of Squirrel-tail Grass. ‘The awns of these Barley-grasses are not 
only long and slender, but they are also thickly set with a double row of 
very minute spines, so that if this plant happen to intrude itself into the 
pasture, it causes much irritation to the tongue and throat of an animal 
eating it. These prickly awns will, on the slightest friction, propel the plant 
rapidly along, as every country child well knows, from the common practice 
of putting an ear of Barley-grass into the sleeve, and allowing it to make its 
way from the wrist to the shoulder, which it will do in the course of a few 
minutes. It grows chiefly on sandy soils. 
4. Sea-side Barley (H. maritimum).—Spike compact, erect; glumes 
rough, the inner one of the lateral spikelets half egg-shaped, the rest bristle- 
shaped and rough ; awn of the larger glume in the middle spikelet more 
than twice as long as the awn of the lateral ones; middle spikelet with both 
stamens and pistils, lateral ones with neither. Annual. This is the smallest 
of the species, and scarcely ever more than half a foot high, with an erect 
stiff stem which is prostrate at the base and bears a small spike. It much 
resembles the last species, but is shorter, more rigid, and of a paler, almost 
sea-green colour. It is not universally distributed on our sea-coast, but is 
not uncommon on grassy and sandy places from Durham to Kent and Devon ; 
it is absent from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, but occurs in the Channel 
Islands. It flowers all the summer months. 
37. (45) WHEAT, OR WHEAT-GRASS (Triticum). 
1. Crested Wheat-grass (7. cristétum).—Spikelets of about four 
crowded flowers ;’ glumes awl-shaped, with a terminal awn. Perennial. 
This grass is not considered native, though it is described as found by 
George Don, many years since, on the coast between Arbroath and Mont- 
rose. Its spike is an inch or more long, on a stiff, slender, leafy stem, 
remarkably rough, and about eighteen inches high. 
2. Rushy Sea Wheat (7. juinceum).—Spikelets 4—10-flowered ; empty 
glumes blunt, many ribbed, awnless; flowering glume blunt, or tipped with 
a short spine. Perennial. This is a common grass on sandy sea-shores, and 
often conspicuous there ; its close spike of distant flattened spikelets on two 
rows, and from six to nine inches long, is supported by a stem from twelve 
to eighteen inches high. It is a rigid plant, with smooth leaves rolled 
inward, very slightly downy on the upper surface, and pale green. The 
part of the stem on which the spikelets are situated readily breaks away at 
the joints. It is a useful grass in binding down the sands, and, like most 
grasses destined for that purpose, is left untouched by animals. 
