198 
GRAMINEAE 
Lemmas nearly or quite awnless...2. L. perenne. 
Glume as long or longer than the spikelet; annual.3. L. temulentum. 
1. L. multiflorum Lam. Italian or Australian Rye Grass. Culms 
3 to 6 dm. high, erect or often decumbent at base, often rough below the 
spike and on the convex side of the rachis; spike nodding, as much as 30 
cm. long; spikelets 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, much exceeding the glume, 10 to 
20-flowered; lemmas 7 to 8 mm. long, the lower short-awned or awnless.— 
Roadsides and waste places, common; introd. from Eur. Frequently 
cult, for lawns and as meadow or pasture grass. 
2. L. perenne L. Perennial or English Rye Grass. Resembling 
no. 1, but usually more slender, with narrower glossy blades and smaller 
spikes; culms and convex side of rachis smooth; spikelets usually 8 to 
10-flowered, not much exceeding the glume; lemmas smaller.—Roadsides 
and waste places, rare; introd. from Eur. Sometimes cult, as a lawn or 
pasture grass. 
3. L. temulentum L. Darnel. Cheat. Culms 6 to 9 dm. high; 
spikes stout, strict, 12 to 20 cm. long; glume 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, equaling 
the 5 to 7-flowered spikelet, firm, pointed, conspicuous; lemmas 6 to 8 
mm. long, obtuse, awned; awn as much as 8 mm. long.—Fields and waste 
places, rather common; nat. from Eur. Var. arvense Bab. Differs in 
having awnless spikelets.—Less common than the species; nat. from Eur. 
13. AGROPYRON Gaertn. Wheat Grass 
Our species perennial, often with creeping rhizomes. Spikelets several- 
flowered, solitary (or rarely in pairs), placed flatwise at each joint of a 
continuous (rarely disarticulating) rachis. Glumes equal, firm, several- 
nerved, usually shorter than the first lemma, acute or awned, rarely 
obtuse or notched. Lemmas convex, rather firm, 5 to 7-nerved, usually 
acute or awned from the apex. Palea shorter than the lemma. (Greek 
agros, field, and puros, wheat.) 
1. A. tenerum Vasey. Slender Wheat Grass. Culms erect, tufted, 
6 to 12 dm. high; spike cvlindric, slender, erect, 10 to 15. cm. long; 
glumes nearly as long as the spikelet, gradually tapering into an awned 
point.—Open woods, rocky slopes and valley plains, widely scattered. 
14. TRITICUM L. 
Slender annuals. Flowers in a terminal spike. Spikes dense, some¬ 
what 4-sided. Spikelets 2 to 5-flowered, borne singly on opposite sides 
of a zig-zag rachis. Glumes broadly ovate, obtuse, 3 to many-nerved, 
several-toothed or awned. Lemmas awned or awnless. Grain free. 
(Old Latin name for wheat.) 
1. T. sativum L. Wheat. A collective species grown in many 
varieties under many names. Aaronsohn considers the cultural form, 
T. dicoccum Schrank, to be the ancestor of true wheat and that it is 
derived from a wild wheat in Palestine, T. dicoccoides Korn. (cf. U. S. 
Bur. PI. Ind. Bull. 180:36-52). Wheat has been cultivated from pre¬ 
historic times. When Joseph’s brethren came down into Egypt, the 
house of bondage, out of the land of Canaan, to buy corn in the years 
of famine, this corn was wheat, and possibly barley or millet, but not 
our American corn which is maize and which was unknown in the Old 
World until after the discovery of America by Columbus. At one time. 
