98 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Erect perennials, with flat blades and bristly, loosely flowered 

 spikes. Species four, in temperate regions; one in the Himalayas, 

 one in New Zealand, and two in the United States. 



Type species: Elymus hystrix L. 



Asperella Humb., Magaz. Bot. Roem. and Usteri 7: 5, 1790, not Asprella 

 Schreb., 1789, a typonym of Homalocenchrus Mieg. A single species, A. hystrix, 

 based on Elymus hystrix L. 



Hystrix Moench, Meth. PI. 294. 1794. One species described, H. patula, 

 based on Elymus hystrix L. 



Gymnostichum Schreb., Beschr. Gras. 3: 127, pi. 47. 1810. One species de- 

 scribed, G. hystrix, based on Elymus hystrix L. 



Our species are both woodland grasses, one, Hystrix patula Moench 

 (H. hystrix (L.) Millsp.) (PL X; fig. 49), in the Mississippi Valley 

 and eastward; the other, H. calif 'arnica (Boland.) Kuntze, in western 

 central California. They have little forage value, as they are no- 

 where abundant. The first species mentioned, sometimes called 

 bottle-brush grass, is worthy of cultivation for ornament. 



40. HORDEUM L. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, 3 (sometimes 2) together at each node of the 

 articulate rachis (continuous in Hordeum vulgare}^ the back of 

 the lemma turned from the rachis, the middle one sessile or sub- 

 sessile, the lateral ones pediceled; rachilla disarticulating above the 

 glumes and, in the central spikelet, prolonged behind the palea as a 

 bristle and sometimes bearing a rudimentary floret; lateral spikelets 

 usually imperfect, sometimes reduced to bristles ; glumes narrow, often 

 subulate and awned, rigid, standing in front of the spikelet ; lemmas 

 rounded on the back, 5-nerved, usually obscurely so, tapering into a 

 usually long awn. 



Annual or perennial low or rather tall grasses, with flat blades and 

 dense terminal cylindric spikes. Species about 20, in the temperate 

 regions of both hemispheres ; 10 species in the United States, 3 being 

 introduced from Europe. 



Type species: Hordeum vulgare L. 



Hordeum L., Sp. PI. 84, 1753; Gen. PI., ed. 5, 37. 1754. Linnaeus describes 

 six species, H. vulgare, H. hexastichon, H. distichon, H. zeocriton, H. murinum, 

 and H. jubatum. The citation given in the Genera Plantarum is to Tourne- 

 fort's plate 295, which represents Hordeum vulgare. This species is therefore 

 the type. All the Linnsean species are retained in the genus at present, but the 

 first four are usually considered to be forms of one species. 



Zeocriton Beauv., Ess. Agrost. 114, pi. 21, f. 2. 1812. Ten species of 

 Hordeum having staminate or sterile lateral spikelets are included ; H. distichum, 

 the species figured, is taken as the type. 



Critesion Raf., Journ. de Phys. 89: 103. 1819. A single species is described, 

 C. genicula-tus Raf. This is Hordeum jubatum L. 



The most important species of the genus is Hordeum vulgare (fig. 

 50), the cultivated barley. This is an annual, resembling bearded 

 wheat, the awns as much as 6 inches long. In common or 4-rowed 

 barley the 3 spikelets of each cluster are fertile, the lateral spikelets of 



