[ 1971 ] JteS.
II O R D E U M murinum.
Wall, or Mouse Barley.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Calyx lateral, of 2 valves, containing a
single floret, and growing 3 together.
Spec. Char. Lateral flowers male, awned. C a ly x -
valves o f the intermediate flower lanceolate, fringed.
Syn. Hordeum-murinum. Linn. Sp. PL 126. Sm. FI.
B r it. 15 5. Huds. 56. With. 1 7 1 . Hull. 28.
ed. 2 . 3 7 . Relh. 46. Sibth. 5 1. Abbot. 2 d. Curt.
Lond. fa s c . 5 . t. 9. Mart. Rust. t. 43. Knapp,
t. 104. Dicks. H. Sicc. fa s c . 13. 1 0 . Sm. Rel.
Rudb. 1 2 . ƒ . 2 .
Gramen secalinum et Secale sylvestre. Ra ii Syn. 3 9 1 .
O n E of the most common of grasses by way-sides under walls,
and in waste ground among rubbish, flowering all summer
long. „ c .
Root annual, fibrous, whitish. Stems numerous, a foot
or thereabouts in length, spreading in all directions at their
base, but bent at then joints and ascending, smooth, leafy,
round. Leaves loosely spreading, acute, rough, of a brightish
green, with short stipulas, and smooth, slightly inflated,
sheaths, of which the uppermost is much the longest. Spikes
solitary, erect, 2 or 3 inches long, dense, their common
stalks very brittle, rough-edged. Flowers 3 together, the
whole imbricated in 2 rows. Calyx-valves of the 2 outer
flowers bristle-shaped, rough ; those of the inner one lanceolate
and fringed.; all tipped with longish very rough awns.
Florets solitary in each calyx, lanceolate, very smooth, .their
outer valve only having a longer and equally rough awn with
the calyx. The central flower is sessile, and has both stamens
and pistil, with a short rough bristle at the base of the
inner valve, which is smooth; the lateral ones are smaller,
stalked, and have stamens only. Their inner valve is fringed.
___ This is a worthless grass, but has not the bad property
1205of hurting horses’ gums like the Squirrel-tail Grass, t. ,
with which, as we have there mentioned, Mr. Curtis confounded
it.