Nardus. ] LXXXIX. GRAMINEZ. 527 
purplish hue. Each spikelet has a single narrow glume, 3 or 4 lines 
long, ending in a fine point, and enclosing a palea, 3 stamens, and a 
simple style. 
On moors, heaths, and hilly pastures, in northern and Arctic Europe 
and Russian Asia, and in the mountains of central and southern Europe 
to the Caucasus. Common in Britain. Fl. summer. 
ee ee 
XXV. ELYMUS. LYMEGRASS. 
Spikelets 2- to 4-flowered, awnless, sessile in pairs (or, in exotic 
species, 3 or 4 together) in the notches of a simple spike. 
A small genus, spread over the temperate and cooler parts of the 
northern hemisphere, differing from Hordium in that all the spikelets 
contain more than one flower. 
1. E. arenarius, Linn. (fig. 1208). Lymegrass.—A stiff, glaucous 
perennial, 2 to 4 feet high, with a long creeping rootstock. Leaves 
stiff, rolled inwards on the edges, ending in a hard point. Spike some- 
times rather dense, 3 or 4 inches long, sometimes lengthening to 8 or 9 
inches, with the spikelets in rather distant pairs, each containing 3 
or 4 flowers. Glumes lanceolate, stiff, downy or rarely glabrous; the 
outer ones 8 or 9 lines long, and very pointed; the flowering ones 
gradually shorter, broader, and less pointed. 
In maritime sands, common in the temperate and colder regions of 
the northern hemisphere, more local on the Mediterranean and in hotter 
climates, and occurring occasionally in inland central Europe, North 
Asia, and North America. fl. summer. A singular variety, with the 
spike much elongated, the spikelets distant, and the glumes often 
enlarged and abruptly bent down, has been distinguished under the 
name of JL. geniculatus, Curt. It is met with on the coasts of Holland 
and Scandinavia, and was formerly on the Thames below Gravesend. 
XXVI. HORDEUM. BARLEY. 
Spikelets 3 together, sessile on alternate notches of a simple spike, 
1 or 2 of them consisting each of 2 glumes, either empty or with male 
or rudimentary flowers, the 2 or 1 others containing each 1 perfect 
flower ; the empty glumes of the 3 spikelets often reduced to mere 
awns, and forming a kind of involucre round the flowering glume. 
A genus of few species, dispersed over the temperate regions of both 
hemispheres, chiefly in maritime districts, and rare in the tropics. The 
origin of the 2 or 3 cultivated species has not been as yet satisfactorily 
made out. 
Flowers of the 2 lateral spikelets perfect; of the central one 
male, or rudimentary, or none. l. H. sylvaticwm. 
Flowers of the central spikelet perfect ; of the lateral ones male, 
or rudimentary, or none. 
Outer glumes of all the spikelets awn-like from the base . . 2. H. pratense. 
Outer glumes of the central spikelet lanceolate, and ciliate at 
the base; of the others awn-like from the base . : . & AH. murinum. 
