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



lower spikelets progressively shorter, o — Weed in wheatflelds, 

 and waste places, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New 

 Mexico; recently introduced from Europe. 



2. Aegilops triuncialis L. Barb goatgrass. (Fig. 476, A.) Culms 

 branching and spreading at base, 20 to 40 cm tall; blades rather rigid, 

 sharp-pointed, spreading; spike 3 to 4 cm long, 2 or 3 of the lower 

 spikelets often reduced, the fertile spikelets 3 to 5; glumes with 3 

 strong scabrous, somewhat spreading awns, 4 to 8 cm long; lemmas 

 with three rigid unequal awns, o — Troublesome weed on range 

 land, California; introduced from Europe. 



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 spike- 

 lets, 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; introduced from Europe. 



42. SEC ALE L. Rye 



Spikelets usually 2-flowered, solitary, placed flatwise against the 

 rachis, the rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and produced 

 beyond the upper floret as a minute stipe; glumes narrow, rigid, 

 acuminate or subulate-pointed; lemmas broader, sharply keeled, 

 5-nerved, ciliate on the keel and exposed margins, tapering into a 

 long awn. Erect, mostly annual grasses, with flat blades and dense 

 spikes. Type species, Secale cereale. Secale, the old Latin name for 

 rye. 



1. Secale cereale L. Rye. (Fig. 477.) In habit resembling wheat 

 but usually taller, the spike more slender, somewhat nodding, on the 

 average longer, o — Commonly cultivated; escaped from cultiva- 

 tion, 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. 



43. ELYMUS L. Wild-rye 



Spikelets 2- to 6-flowered, in pairs (rarely 3 or more or solitary) at 

 each node of a usually continuous rachis, placed as in Agropyron 

 but the rachilla distorted at base, bringing the florets more or less 

 dorsi ventral to the rachis; rachilla disarticulating above the glumes 

 and between the florets; glumes equal, somewhat asymmetric, usually 

 rigid, sometimes indurate below, narrow to subulate, 1- to several- 

 nerved, acute to aristate; lemmas rounded on the back or nearly 

 terete, obscurely 5-nerved, acute or usually awned from the tip. 

 Erect, usually rather tall perennials (one annual), with flat or rarely 

 convolute blades and slender or bristly spikes, the spikelets usually 

 crowded, sometimes somewhat distant. Type species, Elymus 

 sibiricus L. Name from Elumos, an old Greek name for a kind of 

 grain. The species in which the spikelets are mostly solitary can be 

 distinguished from Agropyron by the narrow or subulate glumes. 

 The seed of certain species (e.g., E. mollis and E. canadensis) have 

 been used for food by the Indians. 



The species of Elymus are for the most part good forage grasses, 

 and in some localities form a part of the native hay. In the wooded 

 areas of the Northwest, E. glaucus is one of the valuable secondary 

 grasses of the ranges. The species with creeping rhizomes are likely 



