244 A TEXT-BOOK OF GRASSES 
267. Secale L—Rye. A small genus of southern 
Europe and southwestern Asia including 2 wild species 
and the cultivated rye. Rachis continuous in the cul- 
tivated species, disarticulating in the wild species; spikelets 
mostly 2-flowered, single at the nodes, awned, the glumes 
narrow. One wild species is an 
annual, the other, S. montanum Guss., 
is a perennial. From the latter has 
been developed, according to some 
botanists, the cultivated rye. 
Secale cereale L. Rye. (Fig. 61). Annual; 
culms usually pubescent below the spike, 
otherwise smooth, usually glaucous, erect, 
tufted, 3 to 5 feet high; sheaths smooth; 
ligule membranaceous, short, about 1 mm. 
long, toothed, often lacerate; blades flat, 
14 to % inch wide, scabrous, bearing on 
each side at base a small point or auricle; 
spike 3 to 5 inches long, somewhat nodding; 
the rachis-joints pubescent on the edges; 
spikelets 2-flowered, or with a third rudi- 
mentary floret; glumes narrow, 1-nerved, 
almost subulate, scabrous on the keel; 
lemma lanceolate, much-compressed, 5- 
nerved, ciliate with stiff hairs on the keel 
and exposed margin, unsymmetrical, the 
; outer half broader and more distinctly 
Fic. 61. Secale cereale. nerved, the apex tapering into a straight 
Inflorescence (head), X 14; 
spikelet, X2. (head), X35 awn about an inch long. 
268. Hordeum L.—Barley. A small genus of temper- 
ate regions. Glumes narrow or subulate, standing in front 
of the spikelet, the 3 pairs forming a sort of involucre at 
each node of the rachis; lemmas awned. The most impor- 
tant species is the cultivated barley (H. vulgare), an 
annual with close spikes like those of wheat, the spikelets 
