138 GRASSES OF SCOTLAND. 



been introduced. Its limit of altitude is about 500 feet above the 

 sea. 



Flowers in the first week of July, and ripens its seed in the mid- 

 dle of August. 



91. Triticum junceum. * 

 Sea Wheat-Grass. 



Specific Characters. — Florets not awned. Rachis smooth. Ra- 

 dical leaves involute. (Plate LXIII.) 



Description. — It grows from fifteen inches to two feet high. The 

 root is perennial, creeping. Stem erect, round, and smooth, bearing 

 five or six leaves with smooth slightly striated sheaths ; upper sheath 

 shorter than its leaf, crowned with a short obtuse membranous li- 

 gule. Joints three, smooth, situated low down the stem. Leaves, as 

 well as the whole plant, glaucous, smooth, and polished ; upper leaf 

 broader than the radical ones ; hairy on the inner surface ; radical 

 leaves rigid, linear, acute, and involute. Infiorescence spiked. Spike 

 about one-third the length of the stem, with the rachis perfectly smooth. 

 Spikelets of an oval form, of four or five awnless florets ; sessile, ar- 

 ranged alternately in two rows on the zig-zag rachis. Calyx of two 

 nearly equal obtuse glumes, (Fig 1), of an oblong form, perfectly 

 smooth, with six prominent ribs, the dorsal or largest rib running 

 very much to a side, (Fig. 4.) Florets of two palea? (Fig. 2), 

 the outer palea of lowermost floret about equal in length to the ca- 

 lyx, of an oval form, perfectly smooth and polished, five-ribbed, of 

 which the dorsal rib occasionally extends slightly beyond the summit 

 Inner palea rather shorter than outer palea, with two green margin- 

 al ribs minutely toothed. 



Obs. — Triticum junceum has been occasionally confounded with 

 glaucous varieties of Triticum repens, but is readily distinguished in 

 the rachis being perfectly smooth ; glumes smooth and obtuse ; the 

 spikelets not easily detached without breaking the rachis ; — whereas in 

 Triticum repens the rachis is rough ; glumes acute and roughish on 

 the upper part of the central rib ; the spikelets very easily detached 

 without the rachis breaking. (See Plate LXII.) 



* Triticum junceum, hinn., Koch, Smith, Hooker, Lindley, Greville. 



