Lower palea 9-10 mm. long, five-ribbed, lanceolate and wrapped round and adhering to the fruit (grain), upper palea also ribbed. The grain about 7-8 mm. × 2 × 1·2, hardly grooved. Awn about 30 mm. long, serrulate. Rachilla slightly serrulate.
✲✲ Awn not twice the length of the grain.
Hordeum pratense.
H. maritimum.
| Hordeum pratense. H. maritimum. |
Hordeum pratense, Huds.
Spikelet with a reddish tinge; awn almost smooth, less than 20 mm. long: not twice the length of the smooth and obscurely nerved grain.
Hordeum maritimum, With., similar to H. pratense, but softer and the awn somewhat longer.
The principal features of the Hordeum-grain are the closely adherent paleæ and angular fruit, the stiff awn appearing to come off from it as in Barley. The rachilla remains.
They are all weeds of no use in agriculture, though H. pratense is not uncommon in good pastures.
(2) Palea investing the caryopsis, often closely, but not fused with it, and its tip and awn quite free.
✲ Awn not strictly terminal but sub-terminal, or arising from between two teeth or in a sinus at the apex of the palea.
† Caryopsis thin, flattened and usually 6-10 mm. long, and the paleæ hairy.
≡ Palea inrolled, terete-lanceolate-acuminate, or linear-lanceolate (barge-shaped). Apical teeth minute and pointed.
Δ Palea scaberulous or hairy, awn from half to about its own length.
Bromus erectus.
B. asper.
| Bromus erectus. B. asper. |
| Fig. 71. Bromus asper, a barge-shaped "seed" with terminal awn, nat. size and × about 5. Cf. Fig. [50]. Stebler. | Fig. 72. Brachypodium sylvaticum, a barge-shaped “seed" with terminal awn, natural size and × about 5. Cf. Fig. 77. Stebler. |
Bromus erectus, Huds.