Ut] VEGETATIVE CHARACTERS 59 
** Annual, with thin dry leaves. 
Hordeum murinum, L. (Wall Barley). Coarse tufts ; 
leaves small, narrow, hairy or scabrid. Sheaths sparsely 
hispid, or very downy, inflated. Roads, &c. <A useless weed. 
H. maritimum, With. is a sea-side form, smaller and more 
glaucous. Sheaths hairy. 
(8) Leaf-blades not eared at the base. 
* Sheaths of radical leaves veined with red-purple. 
Holcus lanatus, L. (Yorkshire Fog). A useless weed, 
but very common in pasture and hay; forming tussocks, 
greyish-green, softly hairy (tomentose). Blades with 
roundish ridges. Ligule short and obtuse. Sheath some- 
what keeled, with trace of collar ledge. It is said to have 
a bitter taste (Fig. 15). 
Ligule pilose. Tufted hairs along the broad rounded ridges, and 
on the lower surface and prominent keel. 
The much rarer H. mollis, L. is not so long-haired, except on the 
nodes, and is more creeping and slender in habit. It is a “twitch.” 
The Hordeums present several points of difficulty to beginners. 
The differences between the species are given above. H. maritimum 
has narrower and thicker leaves than the rest. 
Bromes are most likely to be confounded with Hordeums, but 
they have entire sheaths and no ears (see p. 43). 
For distinctions between H. murinum and Lolium see p. 49. 
Hi. sylvaticum and Bromus asper (p. 44). 
** No conspicuously red-veined sheaths. 
+ Ligule absent, or a tuft of hairs. 
Molinia cerulea, Mcench. (Purple Molinia). Tussocks, 
with tough stringy roots. Leaves narrowed below, and 
tapering above to a long point, ridges obsolete; very thin 
