DESCRIPTIONS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 177 



useful to fasteu tlie sand on river banks. The juicy 

 rhizomes and runners are a nourishing food for cattle ; 

 they contain 3 % sugar and 6-8 % Triticin, a gummy car- 

 bohydrate, and are officinally known as "radix graminis." 

 The extract acts as a solvent upon collections of the 

 mucous membranes and in affections of the intestinal 

 canal. A syrup and even alcohol are also made from it. 

 [A. glaMcum R. & S. (?), "Blue Stem," is a valued hay- 

 grass in Montana.] A. junceum Beauv. is distinguished 

 by its involute leaves, obtuse spikelets, and articulate 

 spikes. It serves to fasten down the dunes upon sandy 

 coasts. Boegneria C. Koch is a species of this section. 



Sec. II. Eremopyrum Jaub. & Spach. (as a genus). 

 Spikes short, usually without terminal spikelets ; empty 

 glumes keeled, one- or indistinctly five-nerved. 



Species seven, mostly oriental annuals. T.cristatum 

 Schreb. extends as far west as Hungary and Vienna. 



283. (266 §) Haynaldia Schur. Rachis of the very 

 compact spike articulated ; spikelets not inflated ; two- 

 flowered ; empty glumes flat or channelled between the 

 two keels, long-awned ; flowering glumes keeled, awned 

 below the point ; grain free, laterally compressed, nar- 

 rowly sulcate. 



Species two, one (H. villosa Schur.) in the Mediterra- 

 nean and steppe regions as far as Hungary ; the other 

 {H. hordeacea Hack.) in Algiers. 



284. (267) Secale L. Spikes without terminal spike- 

 lets, somewhat loose, rachis articulate (cultivated forms 

 excepted) ; spikelets not inflated, two-, rarely three- 

 flowered, the lower flowers approximate ; empty glumes 

 subulate-pointed ; flowering glumes long-awned from the 

 point, sharply keeled to the base ; keel fringed ; grain 

 slightly compressed laterally, deeply sulcate, hahy at 

 the apex, free, without epiblast ; embryonic rootlets four. 



Species two, S. fragile Bieberst., with long awns to 

 the empty glumes extending far beyond the flowering 

 glumes, in the sandy plains of Hungary and Southern 

 Russia, annual ; and S. cereale L., Rye (Fig. 93), with 

 subulate-pointed empty glumes which do not exceed the 

 flowering glumes. The original sjDecies (called S. mon- 



