244 



A TEXT-BOOK OF GRASSES 



267. Secale L. — Rye. A small genus of southern 

 Europe and southwestern Asia including 2 wild species 

 and the cultivated rye. Rachis continuous in the cul- 

 tivated species, disarticulating in the wild species; spikelets 

 mostly 2-flowered, single at the nodes, awned, the glumes 

 narrow. One wild species is an 

 annual, the other, S. montanum Guss., 

 is a perennial. From the latter has 

 been developed, according to some 

 botanists, the cultivated rye. 



Secale cereale L. Rye. (Fig. 61). Annual; 

 culms usually pubescent below the spike, 

 otherwise smooth, usually glaucous, erect, 

 tufted, 3 to 5 feet high; sheaths smooth; 

 hgule membranaceous, short, about 1 mm. 

 long, toothed, often lacerate; blades flat, 

 3^ to 3^ inch wide, scabrous, bearing on 

 each side at base a small point or auricle; 

 spike 3 to 5 inches long, somewhat nodding; 

 the rachis- joints pubescent on the edges; 

 spikelets 2-flowered, or with a third rudi- 

 mentary floret; glumes narrow, 1-nerved, 

 almost subulate, scabrous on the keel; 

 lemma lanceolate, much-compressed, 5- 

 nerved, ciliate with stiff hairs on the keel 

 and exposed margin, unsymmetrical, the 

 outer half broader and more distinctly 

 nerved, the apex tapering into a straight 

 awn about an inch long. 



Hordeum L. — Barley. A small genus of temper- 

 ate regions. Glumes narrow or subulate, standing in front 

 of the spikelet, the 3 pairs forming a sort of involucre at 

 each node of the rachis; lemmas awned. The most impor- 

 tant species is the cultivated barley {H. vulgare), an 

 annual with close spikes like those of wheat, the spikelets 



Fig. 61. Secale cereale. 

 Inflorescence (head), X /^; 

 spikelet, X2. 



