GRASSES OF IOWA. 325 



General. Great Britain, the continent of Europe, Scandinavia to 

 northern Africa, northern Asia and the Himalayas. 



3. SECALE. 



SecaleL. Sp. PI. 84. 1753. Endlicher. Gen. PI. 103. Bentham and 

 Hooker. Gen. PI. 3: 1203. Beauv. Agros. 105. pi. 10. Scribner. Bull. U. S. 

 Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 20: 163 f.131. (Rev. ed.) 



Spikelets two, rarely three-flowered, solitary and sessile at the 

 notches of the rachis, forming a spike ; rachilla produced above the florets 

 into a slender stipe. Empty glumes two, rigid, narrow, acuminate or sub- 

 aristate-pointcd ; flowering glume broader, compressed-keeled, five-nerved, 

 awned from the point ; palea a little shorter than the glumes , two-keeled. 

 Stamens 3. Styles very short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain ob- 

 long, sulcate, pilose at the apex, free. Annual grasses, with flat leaves, 

 and dense, terminal spikes, the rachis of which is usually articulated. 



Two species, the Secale cereale and S. fragile, both native of the 

 Old World. The original species of S. cereale known as S. montanum 

 Guss, grows upon the mountains of Spain and Morocco, through Siberia 

 to Asia Minor and central Asia. 



1. SECALE CEREALE. 



Secale cereale L. Sp PI. 84. 1753. Scribner. Grasses of Tenn. Bull. 

 Univ. Tenn. Agrl. Exp. Sta. 7: 124. 1894: Beal. Grasses of N. A. 2: 640: 

 1896. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Rye. An annual grass, 4 to 6 feet (10-15 dm.) high, with linear- 

 lanceolate leaves, and terminal, somewhat flattened, linear, bearded 

 spikes, 4 to 6 inches (8-12 cm.) long. Culms simple, erect, hairy near 

 the spike ; sheaths striate, smooth ; ligule short, dentate ; leaf-blade 

 smooth on the lower surface, scabrous on the upper surface and margins. 

 Empty glumes linear-subulate, nearly equal, scabrous, bristly-pilose at 

 the base; flowering glumes ventricose, acuminate, compressed near the 

 apex, and terminating in a long, scabrous awn. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Iowa. 3207 Conrad (Miss E. Paddock) ; Ames (Weaver, 1146 

 Louthan, Stewart, E. R. Wilson) ; Spring Hill (Jones) ; Mt. Pleasant 

 (Mills) ; Marshalltown (Eckles) ; Cedar Rapids (Miss Hall) ; Durant 

 1 135 (Weaver) ; Ames (Mast, Carver, Fairfield) ; Denison 674, Web- 

 ster City, Jefferson (Pammel) ; Johnson County (Cratty). 



