372 ENDOGENOUS PLANTS 



SOFT BROMUS. 



Biennial? Culm about 2 feet high, smooth; nodes nearly Mack, retrorsely 

 pubescent. Leaves 6 to 12 inches long, hairy on both sides; sheaths retrorsely 

 and softly pilose ; ligule ohlong, lacerate. Panicle-brancfies often simple, some- 

 times subdivided, rough ; spikdets about 7-flowered. 

 Hob. Moist meadows ; pastures, &c, Nat. of Europe. Fl. June. Fr. July. 



Obs. I am not quite certain, as to this species ; but I now incline 

 to think it may be the B. mollis, of the European Botanists. , 



TRIBE 5. HORDEIN'EAE. 



Spilcelets several- (rarely 1-) flowered, sessile on opposite sides of a flexuose toothed 

 rachis, forming & solitary spike, the terminal or lateral florets often abortive; 

 glumes sometimes collateral, occasionally wanting; paleae awned, or awnless; 

 stamens mostly 3. 



1, Spikelets single at each joint of the rachis, several-flowered. 



489. TRIT'ICUM, L. 



[Latin, tritus, a rubbing, or grinding ; the grain being so treated.] 

 Spikelets 3- to several-flowered, compressed, with the flat side against 

 the rachis ; florets distichous. Glumes nearly equal and opposite. 

 Lower palea very like the glumes, convex, awned, or merely mucron- 

 ate; the upper one flat, bristly-ciliate on the two keels, free, or 

 adherent to the groove of the grain. Ovary pubescent at summit. 

 Annuals, or perennials, -the former yielding bread-corn. 



fANNUAi: Spike ^sided; glumes ventricose, obtuse. [GENUINE TRITICTJM]. 

 1. T. VULGARE, Villars. Spike imbricated, with a tough rachis ; 

 spikelets 4- or 5-flowered, broad-ovate, obtuse ; florets mucronate, 

 or often awned ; grain free. 

 T. sativum. L. # Fl. Cestr. ed. 2. p. 86. 

 COMMON TRITICUM. Wheat. Winter, and Spring Wheat. 



Culm 2 or 3 to 5 feet high, terete, smooth ; nodes striate, pubescent. Leaves 6 to 

 15 inches long ; sheaths smooth ; ligule truncate, dentate. Spike 3 to 5 inches in 

 length ; rachis flat and broad, hirsute on the margins ; spikelets sessile, compress- 

 ed at apex ; florets usually 3 fertile and 2 abortive, the penultimate one pistillate, 

 the terminal one neutral, and pedicellate; grain ovoid-oblong, grooved on the 

 upper side, whitish, pale yellowish, or brown. 

 Hob. Fields. Native Country uncertain. FL June. Fr. July. 



Obs. Long culture, in various soils and climates, has produced 

 numerous varieties of this most important grass ; in some of which 

 the chaff is awnless, and the grain nearly white, in others, the 

 lower palea terminates in a long awn, and the grain is reddish or 

 dark brown. 



ft PERENNIAL: Spike distichous; glumes lanceolate, often acuminate. 

 [COUCH GRASSES]. 



*J. T. repens, L. Rhizomas creeping ; spike compressed ; spikelets 

 4- to 8-flowered, lance-oblong, acute ; florets mostly awnless. 

 CREEPING TRITICUM. Couch-grass. 



Rhizomas jointed, white. Plant sometimes bluish-glaucous. Oulms about 2 

 feet high, smooth. Leaves 4 to 12 inches long; sheaths smooth; ligule short, 

 truncate. Spike 3 to 5 inches long; rachis flexuose, flat, mostly scabrous on the 



