TRITICUM. 211 



3. Triticum cristatum, Sir J. E. Smith. Crested 

 "Wheat-grass. 



Root perennial, with very long, strong, woolly fibres ; 

 stems ascending, slender, rigid, leafy, hairy at the top, nine 

 to eighteen inches high ; leaves narrow, shortish, hairy, 

 pointed ; sheaths long and tight ; ligule short, blunt ; spike 

 elliptic-oblong, very close, pale, one inch long ; rachis rough ; 

 spikelets sessile, containing four or five florets ; outer 

 glumes lanceolate, equal, with six faint ribs ; flowering 

 glumes awned, longer than the outer ones ; palea3 as long 

 as the flowering glumes, and delicately fringed. 



This rare grass was discovered on the Scotch coast, 

 near Montrose, by Mr. George Don, where it grew in a 

 small quantity, bearing but a few spikes. There is no 

 record of it being found elsewhere, and on this account 

 Mr. Bentham has omitted it from his list of British 

 grasses. It is readily distinguished from the other spe- 

 cies by its short spikes. 



In Siberia and Tartary it is common, and it also is 

 indigenous in Germany, France, and Switzerland. 



Its flowers appear in July and its seeds in August. 



Such are our native representatives of the important 

 family to which our cereal wheat belongs. All the true 

 wheats are annual grasses, and are said by some to be 

 indigenous in unknown regions of western Asia, but by 

 others to be altered forms of the south European and 

 west Asiatic genus called JEgilops. Our British species 

 are perennials, and can only be considered as allies of 

 the JEgilops, not as sister-species. 



Genus XXVIII. LOLIUM. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence spiked ; spikelets several-flow- 



p 2 



