The Book of Grasses 



places. It is a tufted annual, bearing looser sheaths, narrower, 

 more compressed spikes, and larger spikelets than does the 



Squirrel-tail Grass, but 

 its presence renders hay 

 fully as valueless since 

 the sharp awns, like 

 those of the more com- 

 mon species, penetrate 

 the flesh of sheep and 

 cattle, and occasionally cause 

 death. An English botanist 

 recorded his earlier achievements 

 in science when he wrote of this 

 grass: " In our youth we put inverted 

 spikes of the Wall Barley up our sleeves 

 and found them travel to our shoulders, 

 lis was caused by the parts of the spike- 

 s being compressible, so that by a gentle 

 motion they progressed upward with a kind of 

 spring; but the barbs, on pulling the spike the 

 contrary way, stuck into the clothes and could 

 not easily be dislodged." 



Squirrel-tail Grass. Hordeum juhaium L. 



Perennial. 



Stem 9'-3o' tall, slender, erect. Sheaths smooth. 

 Ligule very short. Leaves i'-6' long, i"-2" 

 wide, flat, rough on margins. 



Spike 2'-5' long, cylindrical, densely flowered. 

 Spikelets i -flowered, usually in 3's, flower of 

 middle spikelet perfect, lateral spikelets imper- 

 fect. Rachilla prolonged. Outer scales awn-like, 

 spreading, i'-2|' long; flowering scale of perfect 

 flower terminating in a slender, rough, spreading 

 awn i'-2' long, lateral spikelets short-awned; 

 palets nearly as long as flowering scales. 

 Stamens 3. 



Cultivated lands and waste places, also in saline 

 soils. June to August. 



Labrador to Alaska, south to New Jersey, Colorado, 

 Cultivated Barley and California. 



240 



