_Arrhenatherum avenaceum_, Beauv. The grasses most like this are species of _Avena_ and _Aira_. The former have two or more perfect flowers, and the only broad-leafed _Aira--A. cæspitosa_, see p. 117--is easily distinguished by its leaves and its very small spikelets and short simple awns. ** Upper flower staminate: lower perfect. Small hairy grasses, with red-veined basal leaf-sheaths and short simple awns. +Holcus.+ † _Erect, evenly hairy, glumes blunt, awn not protruding. Common._ _H. lanatus_, L. ††, _More or less procumbent, hairs chiefly at the nodes. Glumes pointed. Awns simple and exserted. Rarer._ _H. mollis_, L. +B. Each spikelet with at least two perfect flowers, often more.+ (+1+) +Inflorescence spikate, the main axis bearing sessile or sub-sessile spikelets, each containing three or more flowers.+ (_a_) Spike simple[11], axis stout and notched, each notch having one spikelet closely sessile in it. (_i_) Spikelets distichous, the flat side of each--i.e. the edges of the glumes--being next the axis (rachis). +Agropyrum.+ * _A weed with creeping stolons, and no awns or mere points to the glumes._ A. _repens_, Beauv. The variety _A. junceum_ found as a sand-binder on sea-coasts is glaucous, stiffer, with sharply pointed leaves, and blunt glumes. For other sand-binders see note, p. 102. ** _Not creeping. Awns long and prominent._ _A. caninum_, Beauv. (ii) The rounded backs of the glumes are next the rachis. * _Spikelets flat and closely sessile in the notches of the rachis._ +Lolium.+ † _Awnless or nearly so. Perennial._ _L. perenne_, L. †† _With conspicuous awns. Annual, not common._ _L. temulentum_, L. There are several cultivated varieties of _L. perenne_: _L. temulentum_ is notoriously poisonous (see note, p. 168). The lowermost glume of each spikelet is often alone developed or conspicuous, and looks like a bract in the axis of which the spikelet sits. ** _Spikelets elongated and hardly flattened, and not quite sessile, especially the lower: rachis scarcely notched, the spikelets with their sides (edges of glumes) next the axis._ +Brachypodium.+ † _A shade-grass with long, conspicuous awns to the more or less drooping spikelets. Common._ _B. sylvaticum_, Beauv. †† _Growing in the open. Spikelets stouter, stiffer and more erect, with short awns. Not common._ _B. pinnatum_, L.