168 CLASSIFICATION OF [ CH. 
A weed of cultivation, said to be poisonous to cattle, a possible 
explanation of which may be found in a fungus recently discovered 
as a very constant inhabitant of the tissues under the seed coats. 
Lolium temulentum, L. (Fig. 48). 
Palea ovate, 6—7‘5 x 25mm., papyraceous, inflated, 
smooth, the tip dry and emarginate with a slender 
sub-terminal awn its own length or longer. It tends to 
adhere te'the fruit.  Wratt, 3°55 mm. x25 x. 1-5, sonie- 
what depressed. Rachilla large, cylindrical and smooth. 
LI. perenne has no awn, or the merest trace of one. “Seed” 
10—12 mm. long. Boat-shaped. Palea yellow, three-nerved, 
margins papery. Rachilla flat, see p. 143. 
** Awn terminal, and with no evident teeth at 
_ its base. 
=  Palea not much inrolled, ovate-lanceolate to 
linear-lanceolate, and therefore boat- or barge- 
shaped. 
A Very hairy. 
Brachypodium sylvaticum, Beauv. (Fig. 72). 
Palea ribbed and hirsute much like that of Bromus 
asper, but straw-coloured, shorter (10—12 mm.), linear- 
lanceolate, more boat-shaped, and tapering without teeth 
into the longer (J0O—13 mm.) hairy awn.  Caryopsis 
7—S mm., less flattened than in Bromus, with a shallow 
groove. Rachilla smooth. 
B. pinnatum (p. 171) has a much shorter awn, and is nearly 
glabrous. 
These grasses are weeds, but are said to occur frequently as 
adulterants. 
AA Glabrous or nearly so. 
++ Palea five-nerved, pubescent. 
Agropyrum caninum. 
