145 



Fig. 114. Dactylis glomerata L. ORCHARD-GRASS.— a, A spikelet in flower; 

 b, a single floret; c, a flower with 3 stamens and 2 plumose stigmas; cl, the 

 upper portion of a leaf-sheath and lower part of the leaf-blade showing the 

 ligule at the point where these parts join; e, a section of the culm at one of 

 the nodes. 



114. DACTYLIS Linn. Sp. PI. 71. 1753. Spikelets 3- to 5-flowered, nearly- 

 sessile in dense fascicles; rachilla articulated above the empty glumes and 

 between the florets. Empty glumes unequal, 1- to 3-nerved, sharply keeled, 

 acute; floral glumes 5-nerved, short-awn-pointed, strongly compressed-keeled, 

 keel conspicuously ciliate-fringed. Palea a little shorter than the glumes, 

 2-keeled. Stamens, 3. Styles distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain, narrow, 

 oblong, inclosed within the fruiting glume and palea, but free. A perennial 

 grass with flat leaves and narrow (expanded in flower) glomerate panicles. 



Species 1, with several varieties, native of the north temperate regions of 

 the Old World, but now very widely distributed in cultivation and has become 

 thoroughly naturalized in many parts of the United States. 



15441— No. 20 10 



