548 



THE NATURE BOOK 



drought of the baked earth, and the 

 general impo\'erishment of circumstance. 

 In August heat it \va\'es beside the parched 

 field-paths, or lurks in dusty ditches at 

 the roadside. Although it naturally has 

 its better times of growth in moisture in 

 the early part of the year, there seems 

 the inex'itable association of the Way 

 Bent with hard times and dusty arid 

 situations. 



The False Oat {Arrhenatherum aven- 

 aceiiin) stands alone as a single British 

 species, on account of the lower flower 

 of each spikelet having stamens only, the 

 upper ones being perfect, or possessing 

 both stamens and carpel. In the magnified 

 details gi\'en in the illustration on page 547, 

 the lower of the two examples of the 

 flowering spikelet shows the three stamens 

 hanging from the lowest glume, that on the 

 left hand of the group. It is specialised 

 further by the long bent awn, the upper 

 glumes being awnless, or having them 

 expressed in abbreviated form. The mag- 

 nified section of the stem shows excellently 

 the hair growth at the node, as also the 

 membranous hgule that terminates the 

 leaf -sheath at its juncture with the blade 

 in the right-hand illustration. 



In the uppermost illustration of the 

 spikelets, we see the feathery styles of 

 the carpel projecting from the left-hand 

 glume. The flowering stem can be as 

 much as three feet high, with erect branch- 

 ing panicle of light green colour. The 

 glumes have a beautiful polish that reflects 

 the sunlight as the grass moves in the air ; 

 the stem is also polished, whilst the leaves 

 are rather rough. It is a grass of the 

 hedgerows as well as of the pastures and 

 odd corners. It has a perennial rootstock, 

 and flowers in June and July. 



There is so strongly distinctive a look 

 about all the Barley tribe, that the 

 Wall Barley [Hordeian murinum) is quite 

 familiar to most of us. The long, 

 harsh bristles that tip the glumes 

 throughout the entire length of the 

 flowering head are practically identical 

 in character. It is a coarse grass with 

 rough leaves although smooth of stem, 

 averaging ten to eighteen inches high. 



and of a strong bright green colour. As 

 the name suggests, this species can live 

 contentedly on the top of a wall with 

 scanty moisture supply, but it can cover 

 large areas of ground of the waste order. 



At the foot of fences surrounding land 

 adjacent to the towns, spreading by the 

 wayside, tufting about the bald territory 

 of the gas companies, or decorating the 

 divisions of the country allotment gardens, 

 the Wall Barley flourishes in any such 

 places during its year of life. For it is 

 only an annual plant, flowering through 

 June and July. 



Why it lacks the grace of the true 

 barley and unmistakably suggests a coarse 

 growth of grass, would be a little hard to 

 determine. The formation of an in- 

 dividual flower-stem is carried out with 

 the same finish, the same perfect elabor- 

 ation of definite scheme as displayed by 

 Nature always. Yet the combined effect 

 of a colony of Wild Barley is unsatis- 

 factory as a whole. One is dri\'en to 

 conclude that the impression is due to 

 the situation as much as to the grass 

 itself, since one's ideas can be evolved 

 in complex fashion by a combination of 

 circumstance. 



It would be unreasonable to leave men- 

 tion of these grasses of the waste places 

 without mentioning the Couch Grass, 

 whose right to existence has earned it 

 the title of a most troublesome weed. 



From a wholly different point of view, 

 that is really an excellent character, for 

 the plant's own standpoint is, determin- 

 ation to exist. The perennial rootstock 

 of Agropyron repens may be a matter of 

 deep disgust to the farmer, yet it is an 

 indefatigable, indomitable conqueror of 

 difficulties in the economy of Nature. 

 One disjointed inch of that creeping root 

 possesses enormous possibilities of pro- 

 pagation for the species. Roughly speak- 

 ing, the Couch Grass has a reseml)!ance 

 to the Loliiiin family, although botanically 

 separated on account of the spikelets being 

 set against the stem on their rounded side 

 and not edgewise. The grass varies from 

 one to two feet, having hollow, shining 

 stems. 



Maud U. Clarke. 



