468 GRASS FAMILY. 



Avena satfoa, Linn. Common Oat. From Old World ; soft and smooth, 

 with a loose panicle of large, drooping spikelets, the palets investing the 

 grain ; one flower with a long, twisted awn on the back, the other awn- 

 less ; flowers 2 or 3 in the spikelet, perfect, or the uppermost rudimen- 

 . tary. ® 



A. ndda, Linn. Naked Oat. Rarely cult., from Old World; has nar- 

 rower, roughish leaves, 3 or 4 flowers in the spikelet, and grain loose in 

 the palets. ® 



■*- ■*- Spikelets in strict spikes, or in such a dense panicle as to appear to 

 • be spicate. 



** Glumes 2 to each spikelet. 



Trlticum sativum, Lam. Wheat. Spike dense, somewhat 4-sided ; 

 the spikelets crowded, 4-6-flowered, turgid; glumes ventricose, blunt; 

 palet either awned or awnless ; grain free. Unknown wild, ® 



Secale cereale, Linn. Rye. Tall ; spike as in wheat ; spikelets with 

 only 2 perfect flowers ; glumes a little distant, bristly towards the base ; 

 lower palet ventricose, long awned; grain brown. Probably from W. 

 Asia. ® 



«• *♦ Glumes 6 at each joint, in front of the 3 spikelets, forming an involucre. 



Hdrdeum sativum, Jessen. Common Barley. From the Old World; 

 spike dense, the 3 spikelets at each joint of the rhachis all with a fertile 

 flower, its lower palet long-awned. Originally from W. Asia. ® 



H. distichbn, Linn. Two-rowed Barley. From Tartary ; evidently 

 a cultivated state of the above ; only one spikelet at each joint of the 

 rhachis with a fertile flower, the two lateral spikelets being reduced to 

 sterile rudiments ; the flowers therefore two-rowed in the spike. ® 



H. hexdstichon, Linn. Six-Rowed Barley. Another form of H. 

 sativum, with roundish spikes, its joints very short and the flowers diver- 

 gently 6-rowed. Not common. 



* * Stems pithy and thick, not becoming hollow. 



Zea Mays, Linn. Maize, Indian Corn. Stem terminated by the clus- 

 tered, slender spikes of staminate flowers (the tassel") in 2-flowered spike- 

 lets ; the pistillate flowers in a dense and many-rowed spike borne on a 

 short axillary branch (the ear), two flowers within each pair of glumes, 

 but the lower one neutral, the upper pistillate, with an extremely long 

 style, the silk. Very many forms. Cent, and S. Amer. ® (Lessons, 

 Figs. 66-70.) 



II. Canes and Sorghums, with pithy, solid stems. Cultivated for sugar 

 or broom-making {occasionally for fodder). Spikelets clustered or 

 scattered in an ample panicle, each with one perfect and one neutral or 

 staminate flower. 



Sdrghum vulg&re, Pers. (Androf6gon S6rghum of some writers). In- 

 dian, Pearl or Black Millet. From Africa or India ; a tall, maize- 

 like plant without silky down in the spikelets ; glumes coriaceous, russet- 

 color. Var. cernuum, Guinea Corn, has densely contracted panicle, 

 and is cult, for the grain. Var. Durra, Doura, or Kaffir Corn, has 

 densely contracted panicles. Var. saccharXtum, Common Sorghum, 

 Chinese Sugar Cane, Imphee, &c, cult, for the syrup of the stem and 

 for fodder ; and Broom Corn, with open, long-rayed panicles, for the 

 well-known corn brooms. ® 



Sdccharum officinarum, Linn. Sugar Cane. Cult, far S. ; rarely left 

 to flower, propagated by cuttings of the stem ; stem 8°-20° high, l'-2' 

 thick ; long, white, silky down with the flowers. % 



