376 



GRASSES 



GEASSES 



heres. Commonly called wheat-grasses. In native 

 meadows in the Northwest several species are util- 

 ized, especially A. oeeidentale, Soribn., called blue- 

 stem and blue-joint in the Rocky mountain region 

 (not the, blue-stem of the prairie states, 

 Andropogon fur- 

 cateSjMuhl., norof 

 Minnesota, Calw- 

 magrostis Cana- 

 densis), and the 

 slender wheat- 

 grass of Montana 

 and Washing- 

 ton (A. tenerum. 



Fig. 561. 

 Perennial 



lye-grass 



perenne). 



Fig- 



562. Rye iSecale 

 cereale) . 



Fig. 563. Wheat (Triti- 

 cum sativum). 



Vasey). The seed of the latter 

 is now a commercial article. 



repens, Beau v. Quack-grass. 

 (Figs. 159, 564.) A perennial with 

 a creeping, several-jointed root- 

 stock. Culms may reach four feet 

 in height. Leaves numerous and 

 linear; spikes six to twelve inches 

 long, erect ; spikelets on opposite 

 sides of a jointed and grooved 

 rachis, erect, four- to eight-flowered. Glumes acute 

 or short-awned ; lemmas smooth ; palea acute or 

 slightly rounded. Also called couch-grass, twitch- 

 grass and quitch-grass. 



31. Hordeum (Latin name for barley). A genus 

 of about sixteen species of grasses in both hemi- 

 spheres. Spikelets one -flowered, two to three 

 together at each joint of the articulated rachis, 

 forming a dense terminal spike. Glumes two, nar- 

 row or bristle form. 



xmlgare, Linn, (or H. sativum, Jess.). Barley. 

 (Figs. 287, 565.) A well-known cereal cultivated in 

 all cool climates. There are normally three spikelets 

 in a group at each node, each with its pair of awn- 

 like glumes ; each lemma also long-awned. If all 

 three spikelets are developed and form grains, six- 

 or four-rowed barley is produced, according as the 

 lateral spikelets on each side form two distinct 

 rows or are coalesced into one. In two-rowed barley 

 the lateral spikelets are staminate and do not form 

 grains. The grain in most varieties adheres to the 

 lemma in threshing, but in the naked barleys it 

 falls out. Beardless barley is a form in which the 

 awns are short and much distorted. [See Barley. 

 Authorities differ in practice as to use of the two 

 specific names ; either is allowable.] 



Literature. 



The following is a list of the more important 

 recent works treating wholly or in part of North 

 American grasses. In addition, there are numerous 

 local floras, monographs and technical articles in 

 botanical journals that are not readily accessible 

 to the general reader. Manuals and general works : 

 Beal, Grasses of North America, Vol. II, 1896 ; 

 Britton, Manual of the Flora of the Northern States 

 and Canada (1901), Second edition, 1905 ; Britton 

 and Brown, An Illustrated Flora of the Northern 

 United States, Canada and the British Possessions, 

 Vol. I, 1896 ; Chapman, Flora of the Southern Uni- 

 ted States, Third edition, 1897 ; Coulter, Manual of 

 the Botany of the Rocky Mountain Region, 

 1885 ; Gray, Manual of the Botany of the 

 Northern United States, Sixth edition, 1890 

 Hackel, The True Grasses, translated from the 

 German by Scribner and Southworth, 1890 

 Small, Flora of the Southeastern United States, 

 1903; Watson, Geological Survey of California, 

 Botany, Vol. II, 1880 (the grasses are by Thur- 

 ber); Monographs and special papers, United 

 States Government pub- 

 lications : Hitchcock, 

 North American Species 

 of Agrostis, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, Bulletin 

 No. 68, 1905; Hitch- 

 cock, North American 

 Species of Leptochloa, 

 Bureau of Plant Indus- 



Fig. 564. Quack-grass 



{Agropyron repens) . 



try. Bulletin No. 33, 1903; 



Merrill, The Native Species 



of Chsetochloa, Division of 



Agrostology, Bulletin No. 21, 



1900; Merrill, The North 



American Species of Spartina, 



Bureau of Plant Industry, 



Bulletin No. 9, 1902 ; Piper, 



North American Species of 



Festuca, Contributions from 



National Herbarium 10, No. 



1, 1906; Scribner, American Grasses, I, Division of 



Agrostology, Bulletin No. 7, 1900 ; II, Division of 



Agrostology, Bulletin No. 17, 1901 ; III, Division 



of Agrostology, Bulletin No. 20, 1900; Shear, A 



Revision of the North American Species of Bromus 



Occurring North of Mexico, Division of Agrostology, 



Bulletin No. 23, 1900; Vasey, Illustrations of North 



Fig. 565. 

 Six-rowed liarley (Hor- 

 deum vulga/re). 



