CHAPTER XVIII 



PHLEUM PRATENSE (Timothy) 



Description.^ — Common timothy is a perennial grass, from 

 iM to 5 feet high. Corms or bulbs form in the lower leaf 

 axils, a single seedhng sometimes having from eight to twenty. 

 These bulbs develop in the fall of the year, Uve through the 

 winter, and send up new shoots the following season. Thus 

 we see that the plant reproduces vegetatively as well as by 

 seeds. In cultivation the plant shows marked variation in 

 stem, leaf, and inflorescence characters, in earhness, duration 

 of bloom, longevity, vigor, stoohng power, disease resistance 

 and yield of hay and seed. The leaves are flat, and three to 

 eight per stem; the upper sheaths are long, usually exceeding 

 the internodes, and shghtly inflated; the ligule is rounded. 

 The inflorescence is cylindrical and spicate; although it is 

 often called a spike, it is in reality a contracted panicle. The 

 spikelets are one-flowered. Each spikelet is subtended by 

 two membranous, compressed glumes which are ciliate on the 

 margins (Fig. 85), truncate at the tip and awned; the lemma 

 is much shorter and broader than the glumes, thin, truncatCj 

 and finely toothed at the apex; the palet is narrow and thin. 

 Stamens are three in number. There are two distinct styles 

 with plumose stigmas. The whole process of blooming and 

 dehiscence of anthers takes place in about one and one-half 

 hours. Clark observed that the average number of days the 

 individual heads remain in bloom varies from seven to ten. 

 The upper third of the head blooms first. The time of bloom- 

 ing is just before daybreak. The egg-shaped grain is enclosed 



