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HORDEUM maritimum.
Sea Harley. Sq uirrel-tail Grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Calyx lateral, of 2 valves, containing a
single flower, and growing 3 together.
S pec. Char. Lateral florets male, with shorter awns;
their inner husk half-ovate.
Syn. Hordeum maritimum. Sm. FI. Brit. 156. With. 172.
Hull. 28. Relh. 47. Mart. Rust. t. 44.
H. marinum. Huds. 57. Dicks. H. Sicc.Jasc. 5. 4.
Gramen secalinum palustre et maritimum. Rail
Syn. 392.
H u d s o n has very clearly distinguished this grass, which is
confined to pastures near the sea, from the H. murinum, so
common every where by road-sides and path-ways. We
cannot therefore but wonder at their being confounded in the
Flora Londinensis, where every thing related of the Squirrel-
tail Grass under H. murinum, belongs to the maritimum.
The present species is annual, flowering in June and July.
Root fibrous. Stems several, spreading at the base with bent
joints, straight above, leafy and smooth. Leaves smooth, of a
light, somewhat glaucous, green. Spikes terminal, solitary,
pyramidal, dense, of numerous sessile flowers, on a jointed
common stalk, which becomes very brittle as the seeds ripen.
The flowers or florets stand 3 together in a common calyx,
formed of 3 pairs of rough bristly awns, of which the internal
one of each outermost pair is singularly dilated at the base into
a half-ovate figure; which circumstance abundantly distinguishes
Ihe species.
The rough awns are said to be pernicious to horses, where
this grass makes a part of their hay, by sticking in their gums
and producing irritation. See Curtis, fasc. 5, under t. 9.