LESSON IV 



PEDICELED SPIKELETS OF FEW TO MANY 

 FLORETS 



TAKING the spikelet of cheat or chess (Bromus 

 secalinus), Fig. 11, as a starting point, we have 

 one but little different from the 

 diagrammatic spikelet (Fig. 8). 

 [Names incidentally mentioned 

 should not be memorized.] The 

 lemmas are convex on the back, 

 several -nerved, 2-toothed at the 

 apex and bear an awn from be- 

 tween the teeth. The awn is 

 the midnerve extending beyond 

 the body of the lemma. The 

 rachilla joints are short, bring- 

 ing the florets (Fig. 11, B) close 

 together. The articulation is 

 above the glumes and between FlG - * L A, 



. ered spikelet of Bromus 



the florets. The palea is grown secalinus; B, single 

 fast to the grain. All species of floret ' 

 Bromus have spikelets of this character, differing 

 in size, texture, length of the awn, which may be 

 much longer or reduced to a mucro (a minute point) 

 or even suppressed, in being glabrous, as in cheat, or 

 pubescent. The pubescence may cover the lemma 



25 



