202 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



most grasses have a claim to 

 beauty, the shortness of the 

 filaments prevents the an- 

 thers being conspicuous, and 

 their pale lemon tint offers 

 no strong contrast to the 

 greenness of the spike. The 

 shorter awns on the middle 

 spikelets distinguishes this 

 species from H. murinum, 

 the mid-spikelet of which 

 is endowed with long awns, 

 and its outer glumes con- 

 spicuously fringed. 



2. Hordeum pratense, Huds. Meadow Barley. 



Eoot perennial, fibrous ; stem upright, cylindrical, smooth, 

 polished, eighteen inches to two feet high, leafy; leaves 

 narrow, flat, acute, glabrous, edges minutely toothed ; four 

 or five upon the stem ; spike one and a half to two inches, 

 cylindrical, dense, uniform; rachis jointed, brittle, toothed 

 on alternate sides ; to each tooth there are three spikelets, 

 the central containing a lanceolate flowering glume enfold- 

 ing the floret, and furnished with an awn as long as itself; 

 the lateral spikelets are smaller, their outer glumes are 

 bristle-shaped and rough, and their florets imperfect and 

 with long awns ; the palea of the central floret is acute and 

 small, and has a minute bristle at the base ; the outer 

 glumes of all the spikelets are bristle-like, but the base of 

 those of the central one is more expanded, and its keel 

 fringed with minute bristles. 



In appearance this is not a more attractive grass than 



