246 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



3. Aegilops ovata L. Culms tufted, 

 geniculate at base, 15 to 25 cm. tall; 

 blades short, sharp-pointed; spike 

 thick, of 2 to 4 subovate spikelets, 

 the upper sterile; glumes with 4 

 stiff scabrous spreading awns 2 to 3 

 cm. long; lemmas usually with 1 long 

 and 2 short awns. O — Weed in 

 fields, California and Virginia; intro- 

 duced from Europe. 



45. SECALE L. Rye 



Spikelets usually 2-flowered, soli- 

 tary, placed flatwise against the 

 rachis, the rachilla disarticulating 

 above the glumes and produced be- 

 yond the upper floret as a minute 

 stipe; glumes narrow, rigid, acumi- 

 nate or subulate-pointed; lemmas 

 broader, sharply keeled, 5-nerved, 

 ciliate on the keel and exposed mar- 

 gins, tapering into a long awn. Erect, 

 mostly annual grasses, with flat blades 

 and dense spikes. Tj^pe species, 

 Secale cereale. Secale, the old Latin 

 name for rye. 



1. Secale cereale L. Rye. (Fig. 

 331.) In habit resembling wheat, but 

 usually taller, the spike more slender, 

 somewhat nodding, on the average 

 longer. — Commonly cultivated ; 

 escaped from cultivation, in fields 

 and waste places. This species is 

 thought to be derived from S. 

 montanum Guss., a perennial native 

 in the mountains of southwestern 

 Asia. 



Secale montanum Guss. Culms in 

 rather large dense clumps, erect or 

 geniculate at the base, mostly 100 to 

 135 cm. tall; blades flat, stiffly spread- 

 ing; spikes somewhat drooping, 10 to 

 13 cm. long, the rachis rather readily 

 disarticulating; awns 1 to 2 cm. long, 

 slender, scabrous. % — Persisting 

 along roadsides around the experi- 

 ment station at Pullman, Wash. 

 Introduced from southwestern Asia. 



Figure 329. — Aegilops cylindrica, X l A- (Bush 72148, 

 Mo.) 



cm. long; lemmas with three rigid 

 unequal awns. O — Troublesome 

 weed on range land, California; ad- 

 ventive in Pennsylvania; introduced 

 from Europe. 



