000 



GEAAIINE^. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



broad; spikelets 4-7, about as longasinternodesof scarcely brittle axis, 

 4-3-flowered ; glumes of lateral spikelets oblong, 2-3-toothed at tip, 

 teeth triangular-lanceolate, muticous; lower pale unequally 2-3-tooth- 

 ed, muticous; glumes of terminal spikelet, ending in one or two, 

 lanceolate-subulate aicns ; loicer pale mucronate or sliort-aristate — April 

 and May — 



Var. polyatliera, Boiss. One or more of the teeth of the 

 glume of the lateral spikelets more or less prolonged into an awn — 

 Ascent from Tell-er-Rameh to Nebo (Moab). 



4. M. como§a, Sibth. et Sm. Fig. 418. Fig. 419. 

 .2 to .3. Spike slender, .02 to. 03 long; „ 

 spikelets 3-4, as long as internodes or long- 

 er, 2-3-flowered; glumes of lateral spike- % 

 lets broad, 2-3-toothed at tip, teeth trian- | 

 gular-lanceolate, muticous; lower pale 

 short-bidentate, muticous ; awns of glumes 

 of upper spikelets 1-3, the lateral twice to 

 thrice as long as pale, the intermediate 

 much longer; loicer pale of terminal s^nTce- 

 let toothed or aristate — May — El-Masna'ah 

 (Antilebanon). 



Var. §ubTeiitrico§a9 Boiss. Spike- 

 lets 2-3, somewhat ventricose. The glumes 

 of the lower ones with more or less 

 elongated teeth or awns — Palmyra. 



Var. bracliyatliera, Post. Awns 

 of glumes of terminal spikelet twice to 

 three times as long as pales ; awns of pales 

 very short — El-Ghor. 



Probably further study will show that 

 species 3 and 4 are one. 



* * * All the glumes muticous. Lower pale 

 of upper spikelets, rarely of all, long-awned. 



5. iE. squarrosa, L. .3 to .4. 



Spike cylindrical, .06 to .15 long, .005 broad; spikelets 

 7-11, 3-5-flowered, about as long as the grooves of the 

 very brittle axis in which they rest, the lower two-flower- 

 ets fertile; glumes oblong-quadrate, scabrous, abruptly 

 truncate at tip, sometimes 3-4-crenulate-apiculate, three- 

 fourths as long as lower pale ; lower pale truncate or re- 

 tuse at tip, i7i the uppermost spikelets with a single, long 

 awn, in the lower with an aicn a little longer than pale or 

 0, muticous — May — El-Masna'ah (Antilebanon). 



6. ^.cra§§a, Boiss. .3to.5. Spike cylindrical, 

 moniliform, .06 to .1 long, .007 broad; spikelets 7-9, immersed in the 

 deep excavations of the zigzag, brittle axis, ventricose, 3-4-flowered, a 

 little longer than internode; glumes coriaceous, tomentellous, oblong- 

 ovate, rounded or truncate at tip and dbsoletely or manifestly l-t-denticu- 

 late; lower pale longer than glumes, oblong at base, tapering into a 3-5- 

 nerved, needle-like aion, in the loioer spikelets half as long as pale, and in 

 thg upper longer than pale — Spring — 



Spike of ^gi- 

 lops squarrosa. 



