HORDEUM SYLYATICUM• I ElymusEvropmvs, Mant.Plant.
Wood. Barley.
Spm . Char. Florets aU fertile; fences o f the cental and lateral florets similar; and all
lanceolate at the base.
H ordbom sylvaticum is by no means an universal plant, but chooses for its residence rocky woods
or shady groVes, in a chalky or limestone soil. In Studley woods near Ripon, and opposite the Baths
at Matlock, tt will readily be found. Leaves broad and sheathing, a little haity on the inner sidesheathing
hairy; straw rough below the spike, and immediately beneath the joints.______ Linnteus
arranges this plant as Elymus, to which genus it does not appear to belong; inElymus a regular calyx
wraps up the spicula, as in Triticum, but in the plant before us there is a fence, detached from the
florets, placed at the base o f the peduncle, not acting as a calyx, but defending.it, as in Hotdeum,
with which genus it seems folly to accord.---------We usually find the Wood Barley with its florets
solitary, or three in a set, each individual with its fences; but in luxuriant plants they are occasionally
in pairs,* or six in a set, each pair with two fences (C), and the peduncle of a third____Hordeum
sylvaticum is a coarse grass, confined to sylvan stations, o f no value to the agriculturist, nor is it
applicable to any puipose in rural economy.
A, a set o f Florets, each floret solitary.
jB, the Corolla.
c, a Peduncle with two florets, as in luxuriant plants, and then there are six florets
in the set.