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FlG. 131. Secale cereale L. RYE.— a, A spike with upper leaf; 6, a spikelet; c, 

 flowering glume, dorsal view; /, palea: g, grain. 



131. SECAIiE Linn. Sp. PI. 84. 1753. Spikelets usually 2-flowered, solitary 

 and sessile at the alternate notches of the continuous rachis. Empty glumes 

 rigid, very narrow, and subulate-pointed; flowering glumes broader, sharply 

 keeled to the base, and long-awned from the apex, 5-nerved. Palea a little 

 shorter than its glume, narrow, 2-keeled. Stamens 3. Styles very short, dis- 

 tinct; stigmas plumose. Grain oblong, subterete, sulcate on the anterior side, 

 pilose at the apex, free within the fruiting glume. Annual, erect grasses with 

 flat leaves and dense terminal spikes. In the cultivated forms the axis of the 

 spike is usually continuous and not articulated. 



Species 2, Southern Europe, Southern and Central Asia; one, Secale cereale, 

 rye, is widely distributed in cultivation as a cereal. 



