CHAPTER VI 

 RYE 



LIKE wheat, rye belongs in the tribe Hordeae, subtribe 

 Triticeae, in the latter of which the spikelets are solitary 

 at each notch of the rachis, and not three as in barley. 

 In the genus Secale, which includes rye, the glumes are 

 one-nerved and the spikelets 2- (rarely 3-) flowered, 

 while in Triticum the glumes are many nerved and 

 spikelets 2- to 8-flowered. Rye and wheat are crossed 

 only with much difficulty, and always with wheat as the 

 female parent. The hybrids are usually sterile. 



136. Description. Spikes without terminal spike- 

 lets, somewhat loose, rachis articulate in the wild forms; 

 spikelets not inflated, 2- (rarely 3-) flowered, the lower 

 flowers approximate ; glumes subulate-pointed ; lemmas 

 long awned from the apex, sharply keeled to the base; 

 keel fringed ; kernel slightly compressed laterally, deeply 

 sulcate, hairy at the apex, free, without epiblast ; embry- 

 onic rootlets 4, of which 3 are in the same plane. 



According to Hackel there are two species of rye : 

 (1) Secale fragile, Bieberst., which has long awns on the 

 glumes extending far beyond the lemmas, and (2) Secale 

 cereale, Linn., which has subulate-pointed glumes not ex- 

 ceeding the lemmas. The former is found on the sandy 

 plains of Hungary and southern Russia, and appears to 

 be of no commercial importance. The latter is descended 

 from Secale montanum, Gus., and includes all cultivated 



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