PEDICELED ONE-FLOWERED SPIKELETS 49 



is shown in Alopecums (Fig. 39). The margins are 

 grown together for half their length. As in Notholcus 

 lanatus (Fig. 34) the articulation is an exception to 

 that generally characteristic of its allied genera, the 

 spikelets falling entire. The lemma bears a delicate 

 dorsal awn and the palea is suppressed. In most 

 species of Alopecurus the panicle is as dense and 

 spike-like as that of timothy. 



In some genera the glumes are reduced (see Fig. 

 42), and in a few species the first glume is suppressed. 



In Lesson IV, Fig. 21, we 

 noted perfect and sterile 

 spikelets in the same panicle 

 and in Fig. 22 we found the 

 spikelets falling in clusters of 

 three sterile and one perfect 

 spikelet. In Lycurus (Fig. 40) 

 the spikelets are in pairs on 

 the ultimate branchlets of the 

 spike-like panicle, the lower 

 spikelet sterile, the upper per- 

 fect. The ultimate branchlet 

 itself falls with the spikelets ._, .^ t^ • , i w 



^ Fig. 40. Pair of spikelets, 



attached, as in AchyrodeS sterile and fertile (spread 



(Fig. 22) . Lycurus shows an- "P""^^ °^ ^^^"™^ ''''''""'''■ 

 other peculiar character in the 2-nerved first glume, 

 one lateral nerve being undeveloped or very faint. 

 The midnerve is extended into a long awn and the 

 one lateral nerve is usually extended into a shorter 

 awn, but is sometimes a mere tooth. 



