672 GRAMINE.E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



* * A^o obvious running rootstocks, glabrous, or the flat and rnughish leaves some' 

 times hairy above ; glumes as well as flowers mostl g awned or awn-poiuted. 



3. A. violaceum, Lange, Spike short, dense, strict and rigid, usually 

 tinged with violet or purple; spikelets 3 - 5-flowered ; glumes conspicuously 5' 

 nerA'ed, rather abruptly narrowed into a cusp or short awn. (Triticum viola- 

 ceum, Hornem.) — Alpine region of the White Mts., L. Superior, north and 

 westward. (Eu.) — Passing into a vanety with longer usually pale nar- 

 row spikes and attenuate often long-awned glumes, which sometimes ap- 

 proaches A. caninum. N. Brunswick, White Mts., N. H., Peun. {Porter), L. 

 Superior, and westward. 



4. A. caninum, R. & S. (Awned Wheat-Grass.) Spike usually more 

 or less nodding, at least in fruit, rather dense (3-6' long); spikelets 3-5- 

 flowered; glumes S-b-nerved ; awns straight or somewhat bent or spreading, 

 fully twice the length of the palet. (Triticum caninum, L.) — Sparingly natu- 

 ralized in cultivated ground and meadows. Indigenous along our northern 

 borders, and westward. (Eu.) 



5. A. tenerum, Vasey. Culms 1-3° high; leaves narrow; spike very 

 narrow, 2-7' long ; spikelets 3 - 5-flowered ; glumes short-acumiuate. — Minn, 

 to Kan., and very common westward. 



73. LEPTURUS, R.Br. 



Spikelets 1 - 2-flowered, solitary and alternate upon the opposite sides of a 

 narrow spike, sessile and appressed in the concave joints. Empty glumes 

 transverse, narrow, rigid, 5-uerved, the flowering much shorter, thin and hya- 

 line. — Low annuals, branching at the base, with narrow leaves and rigid 

 often curved spikes. (Name from K^tttos, narrow, and ohpd, tail, or spike.) 



L. ixcurvXtus, Trin. Much branched, decumbent, 6' high or less; spikes 

 terminal and lateral, 1-4' long, the base included in the broad sheath. — 

 Borders of brackish marshes, Md. to S. Va., and on ballast northward. (Nat. 

 from Eu.) 



74. HdRDEUM, Tourn. Barley. (PI. 11.) 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, with an awl-shaped rudiment on the inner side, three 

 at each joint of the rhachis of a terminal spike, but the lateral ones usually 

 imperfect or abortive, and short-stalked. Empty glumes side by side in front 

 of the spikelets, 6 in number, forming a kind of involucre, slender and awn- 

 pointed or bristle-form. Flowering glume and palet herbaceous, the former 

 (anterior) convex, long-awned from the apex. Stamens 3. Grain oblong, 

 commonly adherent. — Spike often separating into joints. Ours annuals or 

 biennials, or scarcely perennial. (The ancient Latin name.) 



1. H. jubatum, L. (Squirrel-tail Grass.) (PI. 11, fig. 1, 2.) Low; 

 lateral flowers abortive, on a short pedicel, short-awned ; the perfect flower 

 bearing a capillary awn (2' long) about equalling the similar capillary glumes, 

 all spreading. — Sandy sea-shore, upper Great Lakes, and westward. June. 



2. H. pratense, Huds. Low (6-18' high) ; lateral flowers imperfect or 

 neutral, awnless or merely pointed ; perfect flower with awn as long as those 

 of the glumes (3 - 6") ; spike linear, 1-2' long. — Plains, especially in saline 

 soil, Ohio to 111. and westward ; also sparingly introduced, Va., and south- 

 ward along the coast. May, June. (Eu.) 



