WALL BARLEY 237 



than the stem. The leaves are small, long, broad, bluish -green, 

 downy, with inflated sheaths. The ligule is very short. 



The spike is flattened at the side, drooping, pale-green, flat, stout. 

 The spikelets are in threes, overlapping, dense, with linear- lance- 

 shaped glumes fringed with hairs in the middle spikelet, lateral, 

 bristle-like, rough. The awr s longer than the glumes, the flowering 

 glumes are lance-shaped, the empty glumes thread-like. 



The plant is i ft. high. It flowers in June and July. It is 

 annual, and propagated by seeds. The lateral flowers are male, those 

 in the middle bisexual or hermaphrodite. There are 2 long, pointed 

 nectaries at the base of the ovary. The anther-stalks are thread- 

 like, the anthers yellowish -green and small. There are 2 styles, 

 bent back and softly hairy, and the stigmas are nearly stalkless and 

 feathery. The flowers are anemophilous, or pollinated by the wind. 

 In Barley the flowers open between 5 and 6 a.m., at as low a tempera- 

 ture as 12^ C. The middle florets are cleistogamic. The fruit 

 adhering to the palea is light and adapted for wind dispersal, and the 

 long awn may catch in wool, &c, and cause the seeds to be dispersed 

 by animals. 



This common grass is a sand-loving plant growing on a sand soil. 



The Wall Barley Grass is infested by a cluster-cup fungus, Us- 

 tilago segetum and Pyrenophora trichostoma. The moths The Antler 

 (Charceas graminis], Gelechia cerealella are found on it. 



Hordeum is found in Virgil as the Latin for barley, and the second 

 name indicates the mural habitat. 



It is called Mouse, Wall, Way, or Wild Barley, Way Bennet, 

 Way Bent, Rye Grass, Squirrel-tail Grass, Purr Barley, Pussies, the 

 last referring to the habit boys have of putting the long-awned, 

 flowering spikes down the sleeve. 



It is called St. Peter's Corn in Germany. So injurious is it to the 

 teeth of horses that the best advertisement for an inn there, it was said, 

 would be " Hay without any mixture of Squirrel Grass". 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



345. Hordeum murinum, L. Stem glabrous, erect, leaves long, flat, 

 glumes of middle spikelet ciliate, linear, lateral, spikelets imperfect. 



