THE BAELEY GRASSES. 117 



had taken posses'slbn and greW- luxuriantly, and was 

 called wheat grass, from its resemblance to whdat. It 

 goes in different parts of the country by a great Variety 

 of names, as quake grass, quack grass, sq^iitch grass. It 

 is important to destroy it, if possible. 



Bearded Wheat (jtRass (Triiicum canmum) is found 

 in woods and oh the banks of streams, from New York 

 to Wisconsin and northward. It has no creeping root- 

 stalks, like couch grass. Spikelets four or five flowered; 

 glumes three-nerved, rachis rough and bristly on the 

 edges ; awn longer than the smooth flower ; leaves flat 

 and roughish. It is perennial, and flowers in August ; 

 grows from one to three feet high. It is sometimes 

 found in fields. ■ 



A variety of couch grass^ the Triticwm dasyatachyum, 

 is also found in Michigan and Wisconsin. 



Wheat {^Triticum vulgare). — See next chapter. 



Egyptian Wheat {Triticum compositum) is cultivated 

 in gardens as a curiosity. 



44. HoRDEUM. Barley Grasses. 



Spikelets one-flowered, with an awl-shaped rudiment 

 on the inner side, three at each joint of the rachis, the , 

 lateral ones usually abortive or imperfect, short-stalked: 

 glumes side by side in front of the spikelets, slender and 

 bristle-form; lower pale convex, long-awned; stamens 

 three ; grain long, adhering to the pales. 



Squireel-tail Grass (Hordeum juhaium) is widely 

 diffused over our salt marshes, and the shores of the 

 northern lakes, in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and 

 becomes a prairie grass in moist, level places. Stem 

 slender, smooth, from one to two feet high, with rather 

 short leaves, and low, lateral, abortive, neutral flowers, 

 on a short pedicel^ short-awned, the perfect flower 



