LEPTURUS.] GRAMINE^. 505 



1-fld. ; rachilla produced, with sometimes a 2d fl. glume. Empty glumes 

 2 (rarely 1) enclosing the flowering, equal, hard, coriaceous, ribbed, placed 

 in front of the spikelet, except in the terminal one. Fl. glume keeled. 

 Palca 2-nerved. Scales glabrous, entire. Stamens 2-3. Ovary glabrous ; 

 stiginas sessile, distant, terminal, feathery. Fruit enclosed in the fl. 

 glumes. DISTRIB. Europe, N. and S. Africa, Australia ; species 6. 

 ETYM. AeTrrJs and ovpd from the slender taiZ-like spikes. 



Ii. filifor'mis, Trin. ; annual, glabrous, spike slender. 



Waste places by the sea, from Fife and Isla southd. ; Ireland ; Channel 

 Islands; fl. July. Hoot fibrous. Stems 4-10 in., bent or curved below, 

 ascending, stout or slender, shining, terete, leafy. Leaves short, coriaceous, 

 scaberulous, soon involute ; sheaths slightly compressed, smooth, upper 

 inflated ; ligule very short, auricled. Spike 2-6 in., straight or curved, 

 short or long ; rachis rigid, grooved, hollowed on one side. Spikelets 

 in., green, appressed or spreading ; empty glumes rather oblique, linear- 

 oblong, pointed ; fl. glumes with 1 green nerve ; palea with glabrous keels. 

 DISTRIB. From Gothland southd., excl. Russia ; N. Africa. 



L. filifor'mis proper ; stem and spike slender, the latter nearly straight. 

 VAR. L. incurva'tus, Trin.; stem and spike stouter, the latter strongly 

 curved. Ballast heaps, Fife. 



46. NAR'DUS, L. MAT-WEED. 



A small rigid perennial grass. Spikelets solitary, sessile, secund, in a 

 simple unilateral spike, placed obliquely and in excavations of the slender 

 rachis, 1-fld. Empty glumes 0. Fl. glume 1, slender, concave, keeled, 

 shortly awned, persistent. Palea linear, entire, 2-keeled. Scales 0. 

 Stamens 3. Ovary narrow, glabrous, contracted into a slender filiform 

 hairy persistent stigma. Fruit adherent to the palea. DISTRIB. Europe 

 (Arctic), Azores, Greenland. ETYM. obscure. 



N. stric'ta, L. ; glabrous, leaves setaceous channelled scaberulous. 

 Heaths and dry pastures, N. to Shetland ; ascends to 3,300 ft. in the High- 

 lands ; Ireland ; Channel Islands ; fl. June-July. Sootstock stout, creeping, 

 densely tufted. Stems 2-8 in., erect, filiform, rigid, striate, angled ; base 

 with long pale sheaths. Leaves, upper erect, lower almost horizontal ; 

 sheaths smooth; ligule short. Spike 1-3 in., solitary; rachis very slender, 

 strict. Spikelets rather distant ; fl. glume ^ in., slender, reddish or purplish ; 

 divaricate after flowering, scabrid above, narrowed into the short awn. 

 Rejected by sheep, on account of the harsh foliage. 



47. HOR'DEUM, L. BARLEY. 



SpiJcelels 2-3-nate, subsessile, distichous, compressed, spiked, inserted 

 broadside to the rachis, 1-fld., rachilla produced with a subulate rudi- 

 mentary glume ; lateral Spikelets, rarely the central, neuter male or 

 2-sexual. Empty glumes 2, exceeding the flowering or not, equal, col- 

 laterally placed in front of the spikelet, awned. Fl. glume rounded at 



