Hordeum.~] CLXXIII. GRAMINE^. (J. D. Hooker.) 373 



Stems densely tufted, 3-6 in., stout or slender, often geniculate afc the base. 

 Leaves short, linear, flat, glabrous or hairy beneath ; ligule small. Spikes 2-3 by 

 -i3 in., erect or inclined; raehis subfragile, green or purplish. Spikelets densely 

 crowded, sub hexastichous, - in. long, awns longer or shorter than the gl. Some 

 of Dr. Thomson's Tibetan specimens are upwards of 3 ft. high with the stem nearly 

 as thick as a goose-quill. 



131. ELYMTJS, Linn. 



Characters of Agropyrum, but spikelets for the most part in pairs, 

 threes, or fascicled in the nodes of the raehis, and empty gls. usually more 

 or less collateral Species about 20 enumerated, of N. and S. temperate 

 regions. 



Boissier (Fl. Or. v. 090) considers Elymus as too closely allied to Hordeum. To 

 me it appears to be connected with Agropyrum through E. sibiricus, and A. longe- 

 aristatum, in both which the empty glumes are opposite one another, not as in the 

 other Indian Elt/mi placed more or less collaterally. It is as difficult to limit the 

 species in one genus as in the other, and the more specimens one has of any species, 

 the more difficult it is to limit it. 



* Aivn of fl. gl. miifli longer than the gl. 



1. C. sibiricus* Linn. Sp. PI. 3 ; spike short or elongate and 

 flexuous, spikelets geminate and fascicled, empty gls. subopposite much 

 shorter than the 5-7-fld. spikelet, fl. gls. lanceolate 5-nerved narrowed 

 into a slender erect or recurved awn much longer than the gl. Schreb. 

 Gram. i. t. 21, f. 1 ; Kunth Enum. PL \. 451, Suppl. 367 ; Ledeb. FL Ross, iv, 

 330 ; Steud. Syn. Gram. 348 ; Duthie Grass. N. W. Ind. 46. E. glaucus, 

 Burkl. in Proc. Acad. Sc. Philad. 1862, 99. E. nutans, Griseb. in Goett. 

 Nadir. (1868) 72. E. tener, Linn.f. Suppl. 114. 



TEMPERATE & ALPINE HIMALAYA ; from Kashmir to Sikkim, alt. 10-14,000 ft. 

 EASTERN & WESTERN TIBET, alt. 10-15,000 ft. (15-18,000 ft., Stoliczba). DJSTRIB. 

 Atfghan., Abyssinia, N. Asia & America. 



Stem 1-2 ft., densely tufted, ascending, smooth, erect inclined or dccurved 

 below the spike. Leaves J- | in. broad, nearly smooth ; ligule very short. Spike 

 very variable, 4-10 in. long, green or brownish, straight curved or flexuous ; raehis 

 smooth, or faintly scabrid, as are the margins of its hollows. Spikelets --1 in. long 

 excluding the awns, sessile and pedicelled ; rachilla slender, minutely scaberulous, 

 its intemodes long or short; gl. land II most variable, II -f the length of the 

 lowest fl. gl., from narrowly oblong to ovate-oblong lanceolate or almost setaceous, 

 acute acuminate or both or II only awned, quite entire (never notched), usually 

 strongly 3-nerved ; fl. gls. narrowly lanceolate, narrowed into the awn, quite entire 

 or tip toothed on one or both sides at the base of the awn, glabrous smooth or 

 faintly scaberulous, 5-nerved usually to the base; awn f-1 in. 5 palea linear, keels 

 ciliate-toothed above the middle. Lod-icules lacerate. Anthers short. Ovary 

 pyriform, top hirsute; stigmas short. A very abundant grass in Tibet and the 

 higher Himalaya, states of which are with difficulty distinguished from Agropyrum 

 lmige-aristatum (which see), and just as variable, in the empty glumes especially, 

 but the awns are usually shorter. A small very slender form with an inclined 

 horizontal and upcurved spike of secuud purplish spikelets is var. minor of Uackel. 

 (Duthie n. 13,745) and Agropyrum longe-aristatum var. Aitchisoni of Hoiss. (Fl. Or. 

 v. 6b'0) and Brachypodium tafancum, Munroin Journ. Linn. Soc. xviii. (188L) 109. 

 Another, variety (Bromus dubius, Jacquem. mss.) has oblong very dense short sub- 

 cylindric spikes. It is a very alpine form, found at 15-18,000 ft. elevation in 

 Eastern and Western Tibet. 



