GRASS PAMILT. 357' 



hard for a meadow grass : of many varieties, introdnced from Europe ; spikelets 

 4- 8-flowered; lower palet eitlier pointless or short-awned. y. 



T. vulgire. Wheat. Spike dense, somewhat 4-sided; the spikelets 

 crowded, 4 - 5-flowered, turgid ; glumes ventricose, blunt ; palet either awned 

 or awnless ; grain free. (T) 



T. Sp61ta, Spelt. A grain rarely cult, in this country; spike flat, the 

 rhachis fragile, breaking up at the joints ; grain enclosed in the palets. ® 



Secale cere^e, Rye. Tall ; spike, as in wheat ; spikelets with only 2 per- 

 fect flowers ; glumes a little distant, bristly towards the base ; lower palet ven- 

 tricose, long awned ; grain brown. 



-1- -1- -1- Glumes 6 at each joint, in front of the 3 spikelets, forcing an involucre. 



H6rdeuni VUlgkre, Common Baklet, 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. (J) 



H. distichum, Two-rowed Bablet, from Tartary : 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. ® 



^- ^- -1- -1- Spikelets in a contracted panicle or seeming spike, or if spiked some- 

 what on one side of the rhachis : each with a single perfect flower, its palets 

 of coriaceous or cartilaginous texture : by the side of it are either one or two 

 thin palets of a sterile usually neutral flower. 



Setciria, Foxtail-Geass. Spikelets in clusters on the branches of the 

 contracted spike-like panicle or seeming spike, these continued beyond them 

 into awn-like rough bristles ; but no awns from the spikelets themselves. 

 Weeds, or the last one cult. ; all from Old World ; fl. late summer. ® 



S. glatica, Common Foxtail : in all stubble and cultivated grounds.; low ; 

 spike tawny yellow, dense ; long bristles 6-11 in a cluster, rough upwai'ds (as 

 also all the following) ; palets of perfect flower wrinkled crosswise. 



S. viridis. Green Foxtail or Bottle-Grass ; has less dense and green 

 spike, fewer bristles, and palets of perfect flower striate lengthwise. 



S. Italica, or GermAnica, Italian Millet, Bengal Grass, &c. Cult. 

 for fodder, 3° — 5° high, with rather large leaves, a compound or interrupted so- 

 called spike, which is evidently a contracted panicle, sometimes 6' - 9' long and 

 nodding when ripe ; bristles short and few in a cluster ; palets of the fertile 

 flower smooth. 



P4nieuin (Digit^ria) sangain&Ie, Finger-Grass or Crae-Grass. 

 Chiefly a weed in cult, fields in late summer and autumn, but useful in thin 

 grounds S. for hay; herbage reddish; spikes 4-15, slender, digitate, nearly 

 1-sided ; spikelets seemingly 1-flowered with 3 glumes ; no awns. (T) 



P. Crus-g^Ui, Cock's-foot P., or Barntard-Geass. Common weedy 

 grass, of moist barnyards and low rich grounds : coarse, with rather broad leaves, 

 and numerous seeming spikes along the naked summit of the flowering stems, 

 often forming a sort of panicle ; spikelets containing one fertile and one sterile 

 flower, the lower palet of the latter bearing a coarse rough awn. ® 



P capill&re. Witch Grass of stubble and corn-fields in autumn, having 

 a very open capillary panicle, would be sought, under another division ; it is a 

 mere weed. ® 



B. Stems not hollow, pithy. 



§ 1. Spikelets clustered or scattered in an ample panicle, each with one perfect and 

 one neutral or staminate flower. 

 » Without silky-down : glumes, ^c. russet-brown, coriaceous. 

 S6rghuni VUlgkre, Indian Millet, Durra, or Doura, &c., from Africa 

 or India ; the var. cernuum, Guinea Corn, has densely contracted panicle, 

 and is cult, for the grain. Var. sacchaeXtum, Sweet Sorghum, Chinese 

 Sugar-Cane, Imphee, &c., cult, for the syrup of the stem; and Broom-corn, 

 for the well-known corn-brooms. ® 



