tf 



574 



CVII. GRAMINE^. 



{^Lept 



urus^ 



f* ' 



equal to or shorter than the glume, florets awncd or awnless 

 elliptical in fruit tumid, root annual without barren shoots 

 a. florets with rigid awns about as long as or lono-er than the 

 glumella. E. B. t. 1124: Parn. Gr. tt. 64, 142."^—^. florets 

 with soft imperfect awns or awnless. L. arvense With • E B 

 t. 1125. ** ' • 



Corn-fields, not common In Scotland. 0. '7. .'The true 



natural distinction between this and L, perenne does not lie in the 

 proportionate length of glumes and spikelets which varies in both 

 but in the root without barren shoots, and in the tumid florets. The 

 seeds, mixed with wheat and made Into bread, have proved hl^^hly 

 injurious. The L. arvense of Withering can only be considered a 

 var. of the present, with an imperfect awn. 



40. Lepturus Brown. 



Hard-grass. 



) 



Spike terete, solitary, separating at the joints. Spikelets soli- 

 tary in each joint, imbedded in cavities alternately on opposite 

 sides of the rachis and placed edgewise to it, with 1 (or 2) fer- 

 tile florets and a superior minute rudimentary (sometimes ob- 

 solete) neuter one. Glumes (1 or) 2, collateral, on the opposite 

 side from the rachis and covering the floret, cartilaginous, 

 several-nerved, Glumellas of the fertile floret 2, scarious, awn- 

 less. — Name from Xetttoq^ slender^ and ovpa^ a tail; in allusion 

 to the slender spikes. 



1. L. incurvdtus Trin. (Sea H.) ; spike subulate, glumes 2. 

 ' a. spike curved. Rottboellia L. : E. B. t. 760 : Parn. Gr. t. 2. 

 — ,8. spike filiform nearly or quite erect. L. filiformis Trin. 

 Eottboellia Roth. R. incurv. var. filiformis Hook. : Parn Gr 

 t. 3. 



Sea-shores, but not common. Frequent on the Irish coast ^8. 



many places along the coast of England. Rare In Scotland, as 

 near Aberlady. 0. 7.— Plant from 2—6 or 8 inches high, more 

 or less curved, especially in the curious spike, but never so much so 

 on our coast as on the shores of the Mediterranean, our usual plant 

 beln^ in that respect intermediate between the genuine i. incurvatus 

 and L. fiUformis of authors. We have, however, collected specimens 

 at Hull, with the spikes quite erect and slender. 



41. Knappia Smith. Knappia. (Tab. IX. £ 39.) 



Spikelets very shortly stalked, solitary, arranged on two sides 

 of the simple rachis and forming a simple unilateral spike-like 



1 Althcugh for aiding the student we describe tlie spikelets as solitary with 2 

 glumes, this IS not the case the spikelets being actLly in pairs in IL™ 

 iDiplerma) mcurvatus and fihformis ; the fertile one is sessile, having a single 

 glume; the oLher which ispedicellate, is reduced to the mere pedicel resembtog 

 loniiLrtHt In X'?.. 'P'*""'"' ^"^*' "^"'-"'y '^^^<^x^^^^d as a Vond gfume beV 

 ioiT'nd\1s,sSsKcr;ft^iro'^rglu^r^r''"^ there is :only one spikefet at each 



I 



