GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 91 



35. SECALE L. 



Spikelets usually 2-flowered, solitary and sessile, placed flatwise 

 against the rachis ; the rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and 

 produced beyond the upper floret as a minute stipe ; glumes narrow, 

 rigid, acuminate or subulate-pointed ; lemmas broader, sharply keeled, 

 5-nerved, ciliate on the keel and exposed margins, tapering into a 

 long awn. 



Erect, mostly annual grasses, with flat blades and dense terminal 

 spikes. Species five, in the temperate regions of Eurasia ; one species 

 cultivated in the United States and frequently escaped along way- 

 sides. 



Type species : Secale cereale L. 



Secale L., Sp. PI. 84, 1753 ; Gen. PI. 36. 1754. Linnaeus describes four species: 

 S. cereale, S. villosum, S. orientale, and . creticum. The second species is now 

 referred to Haynaldia, the third to Agropyron. The first species is chosen as 

 the type, as it is a well-known economic species. 



Secale cereale (fig. 45), common rye, is cultivated extensively in 

 Europe and to some extent in the United States for the grain, but 

 here it is frequently grown as a forage crop. Rye is used for winter 

 forage in the South and for fall and spring pasture in the inter- 

 mediate region, and for green feed farther north. It is also used for 

 green manure and as a nurse crop for lawn mixtures, especially on 

 public grounds when it is desired to cover the ground quickly with a 

 green growth. Cultivated rye probably has been developed from the 

 wild perennial European species S. montanuwi Guss. In the wild 

 species of Secale the rachis disarticulates, but in 8. cereale it is con- 

 tinuous. 



36. SCRIBNERIA Hack. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, solitary, appressed and lateral to the some- 

 what thickened continuous rachis, the rachilla disarticulating above 

 the glumes, prolonged as a very minute hairy stipe;- glumes equal, 

 narrow,' firm, acute, keeled on the outer nerves, the first 2-nerved, the 

 second 4-nerved; floret with short hairs at the base; lemma shorter 

 than the glumes, membranaceous; rounded on the back, obscurely 

 nerved, the apex shortly bifid, the lobes obtuse, the faint midnerve 

 extending as a slender straight awn ; palea 2-nerved, about as long as 

 the lemma. 



Low annual, with slender cylindric spikes. Species one. 



Type species : Lepturus bolanderi Thurb. 



Scribneria Hack., Bot. Gaz. 11: 105, pi. 5. 1886. One species described, based 

 on Lepturus bolanderi Thurb. 



The single species, Scriltnerw "bolanderi (Thurb.) Hack. (fig. 46), 

 is found in sandy sterile ground in the mountains from central 

 California to Washington. It is too small and rare to be of economic 

 importance. 



