148 



by cattle and sheep ; indeed, it was observed by Mr. Sinclair to con- 

 stitute the principal herbage of certain pastures in Norfolk that were 

 regarded as excellent for feeding the latter. As an agricultural grass, 

 however, it cannot be recommended, as the numerous stiff and sharp 

 awns of the inflorescence render 'it deleterious to the animals that 

 consume it in the form of hay, so much so that they often instinctively 

 refuse that of which barley grass forms any considerable proportion. 



Hordeum pratense seems almost exclusively confined to temperate 

 climates, being distributed all over central Europe, and the milder 

 regions of Kussian Asia ; but not extending into the northern parts 

 of even Norway and Sweden, nor southward to the basin of thd Medi- 

 terranean. 



When growing on lands that suffer from drought during the summer, 

 but are liable either to occasional overflowing, or to have water lying 

 on them through the winter, nodes or bulbs often form about the root 

 or base, hence it is mentioned by some continental botanists under the 

 name of H. nodosum. 



HoEDEtJM MURiNUM. Wall Barley Grass. Way Bennet. Mouse 

 Barley. Plate CXXIII. 



G-lumes of the middle spikelet linear-lanceolate, ciliated ; those of 

 the' lateral ones, setaceous, rough. Lateral spikelets imperfect. Awn 

 of the fertile middle flower much longer than its palea. 



Hordeum murinvmi, Linnceus. E. B. 1971 ; ed. 2. 174. Grenerally 

 adopted. 



One of the most common of British grasses, throughout England 

 especially, where it grows on every road-side and field-path, along the 

 bases of walls and fences, on heaps of rubbish and dry waste ground, 

 which latter it sometimes covers to the exclusion of all other vegetation. 

 In the meadow and pasture it seldom intrudes, preferring hard and dry 

 ground unoccupied by other plants, and indeed appearing to flourish most 

 where it is liable to be frequently trodden down. Stems tufted, decumbent 

 at the base, a foot or more in height when not stinted by being trodden, 

 but more frequently five or six inches only. Leaves more or less rough 

 and hairy, linear, acute ; their sheaths inflated. Spike dense, about 

 two inches long, not including the length of the awns. Fertile flower 

 of the central spikelets terminating with an awn considerably longer 

 than itself; lateral spikelets barren, their flowers being usually imper- 

 fectly stameniferous. Glumes of the fertUe flower narrow-lanceolate, 

 ciliated, terminating in a long, straight, rough awn ; those of the lateral, 

 stalked, barren ones bristle-shaped, rough. 



Annual. Flowers in May and to the end of autumn. 



A weed, but one that seems to know its place, and never troubles 

 the cultivator. Like most other colonizing grasses, it is almost devoid 

 of nutritive properties, and grazing animals rarely crop even the early 

 spring foliage. 



