GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 65 
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blades two to five inches long, flat, rough, and grayish green; 
spikes nodding, three to five inches long, the spreading awns making 
them nearly as broad; spikelets in threes, on opposite sides of the 
flattened jointed rachis; only the central one produces a seed, the 
lateral flowers being sterile; glumes equal, rigid, 
narrow and bristle-pointed, placed at the side of 
the compressed spikelet which is placed with its 
back against the spike; the lemma of the fertile 
flower is armed with a long, sharply barbed awn, 
and the sterile flowers have three apiece, so that 
each spikelet has seven awns, all barbed. These 
rough-awned seeds cling to the hair and the wool 
of animals, and are carried by the wind, and by 
the water of irrigating ditches, along which the 
pest loves to grow — although it adapts itself to 
almost any soil, even the dry, alkaline regions 
where few other grasses thrive. 
Means of control 
Mowing the grass so early and so frequently as 
to prevent the formation of the barbed seed- 
heads. If the infestation is new and the plants 
are not too numerous, hand-pull and destroy 
them. Large areas may be burned over, killing 
the plants and any seeds on the surface. Culti- 
vation of the ground will exterminate the weed, 
care being taken to ‘leave no stragglers along fence 
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rows and ditches. 
Fie. 32.— 
, Wild Barley or 
LITTLE BARLEY Squirrel-tail 
Hordeum juba- 
Hordeum pusillum, Nutt. ao x i 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: Late May to June. 
Seed-time: June to July. 
Range: Ontario to British Columbia, southward to Arkansas, 
Texas, and California. On the Atlantic Coast from Virginia to 
Florida. 
Habitat: Plains; has a preference for saline soil. 
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