VIl] FLORAL CHARACTERS 107 



The variety A. junceum found as a sand-binder on sea-coasts 

 is glaucous, stifier, with sharply pointed leaves, and blunt glumes. 

 For other sand-binders see note, p. 102. 



** Not creeping. Awns long and prominent. 



A. caninum, Beauv. 



(ii) The rounded backs of the glumes are next the rachis. 



* Spikelets flat and closely sessile in the notches 



of the rachis. 



Lolium. 



t Awnless or nearly so. Perennial. 



L. perenne, L. 



+t With conspicuous awns. Annual, not common. 



L. temulentum, L. 



There are several cultivated varieties of L. perenne : L. temu- 

 lentum is notoriously poisonous (see note, p. 168). The lowermost 

 glume of each spikelet is often alone developed or conspicuous, and 

 looks like a bract in the axis of which the spikelet sits. 



** Spikelets elongated and hardly flattened, and 

 not quite sessile, especially the lower : rachis 

 scarcely notched, the spikelets with their sides 

 {edges of glumes) next the axis. 



Brachypodinm. 



t A shade-grass with long, conspicuous awns to the 

 more or less drooping spikelets. Common. 



B. sylvaticum, Beauv. 



tt Growing in the open. Spikelets stouter, stiffer 

 and more erect, with short awns. Not connmon. 



B. pinnatum, L. 



Brachypodium may easily be confounded with Bromus, but the 

 spikelets are nearly sessile : their shape and the absence of con- 

 spicuous notches distinguish this genus from Agropyrum. Lolium 



