290 GRASSES OF BRITAIN. 



Triticum pinnatum. 



Upright Wheat-Grass. 



Plate CXXXII. 



Specific Characters. — Awns shorter than their florets. Root creep- 

 ing. 



Description. — Root perennial, creeping. Stem erect, round, hol- 

 low, smooth, and slender, occasionally three feet in length, bearing 

 four or five leaves with striated sheaths ; the upper sheath shorter 

 than its leaf; the lower sheaths furnished with hairs directed down- 

 wards. IJgules short and obtuse, about twice as broad as long. 

 Joints usually four, hairy, the first and second remote. Leaves long, 

 linear, taper-pointed, rough on both sides, hairy on the upper side, 

 with a prominent central rib extending the whole length. Irifiorescence 

 racemed, approaching to a spike, the peduncles of the spikelets being 

 very short but distinct. Rachis roughish, especially on the inner or 

 grooved side. Spikelets erect, long, and linear, usually of ten awned 

 florets and two glumes. Glumes unequal, smooth, seven-ribbed, the 

 central rib occasionally prolonged into a point or short awn. Floret 

 of two palese ; outer palea of lowermost floret longer than the large 

 glume, slightly roughish to the touch, seven -ribbed ; the central rib 

 terminating in a rough awn seldom more than half the length of the 

 palea, and often much shorter ; the uppermost awns being always the 

 longest. Inner palea rather shorter than the outer, obtuse, with two 

 green ribs fringed with white bristly hairs on the upper half. Styles 

 two, arising from the summit of the ovarium. Stigmas feathery. 

 Filaments three. Anthers yellowish, notched at each end. Ovarium 

 hairy on the summit. Scales obtuse, hairy. 



Obs. — Triticum pinnatum is distinguished from Triticum sylvati- 

 cum in being of a more upright growth ; the root creeping, and the 

 awns of the florets never as long as the palea ; — whereas in Triticum 

 sylvaticum the root is fibrous, and the aicns of the upper florets are as 

 long or longer than the palea. 



Triticum pinnatum is readily distinguished from the rest of the 



TAlicum plnnaticm, Msench. Brumus finnatus, Linn., Eng. Bot. Festuca jyinnata, 

 Huds., Smith, Knapp. Branchijiwdium 2nnnat-urn., Beauv., Hooker, Babington. 



