HORDEUM PRATENSE. 187 



HORDEUM PRATENSE. 



HUDSON. HOOKER AND ARNOTT. SMITH. KUNTH. 



DEAKIN. PARNELL. LINDLEY. RELHAN. MARTYN. KNAPP. SINCLAIR. 



MACREIGHT. SCHRADER. EHRHART. WITHERING. SIBTHORP. 



BABINGTON. REICHENBACH. 



PLATE LXIII A. 



Hordeum nodosum, KOCH. LINNAEUS. 



" secalinum, WILLDENOW. HOST. 



maritimum, OEDER. 



Gramen secalinum, GERARDE. RAY. 



The Meadow Barley. 

 Hordeum ? Pratense A field. 



inOUND in moist meadows and pastures in the counties of Somerset, 

 -L" Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Bedford, Oxford, 

 Leicester, Worcester, Warwick, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, 

 Durham, Northumberland, Flint, and Denbigh. In Scotland rare near 

 Edinburgh; occasionally in Ireland. Extending into central Europe. 



An early species, and although common in Norfolk pastures is not 

 considered a profitable agricultural Grass. 



Stem circular, smooth, upright, and polished, carrying four or five 

 linear, flat, somewhat hirsute leaves, with smooth striated sheaths; the 

 upper one being longer than its leaf, and having a very brief ligule 

 at its apex. Joints smooth. Inflorescence spiked. Spikes dense, and 

 an inch and a half long. Rachis dentate. Spikelets in threes on each 

 tooth of the rachis. Calyx of central spikelet consisting of two equal- 

 sized glumes. Central floret of two palese; exterior one three-ribbed, 

 and ending in a lengthy rough awn; inner palea acute, and only half 

 the length. Length eighteen to twenty-four inches. Root perennial 

 and fibrous. 



