36 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



1. Bromus catharticus Vahl. Rescue grass. (Fig. 5.) Annual or 

 biennial; culms erect to spreading, as much as 100 cm tall; sheaths 

 glabrous or pubescent; blades narrow, glabrous or sparsely pilose; 

 panicle open, as much as 20 cm long, the branches as much as 15 cm 

 long, naked at base, in small plants the panicles reduced to a raceme 

 of a few appressed short-pediceled spikelets ; spikelets 2 to 3 cm long, 



6- to 12-flowered; glumes acuminate, about 1 

 cm long; lemmas glabrous, scabrous, or some- 

 times pubescent, acuminate, 1.5 cm long, closely 

 overlapping, concealing the short rachilla joints, 

 awnless or with an awn 1 to 3 mm long; palea 

 two-thirds as long as the lemma. O (B. un- 

 ioloides H. B. K.) — Cultivated in the Southern 

 States as a winter forage grass. Escaped from 

 cultivation or sparingly introduced in waste 

 places throughout the Southern States and rarely northward (fig. 6). 

 Known also as Schrader's bromegrass. 



Figure 6.— Distribution of 

 Bromus catharticus. 



Figure 7.— Bromus sitchensis, X 1. (Piper 3013, Alaska.) 



2. Bromus sitchensis Trin. (Fig. 7.) Stout smooth perennial; 

 culms 120 to 180 cm tall; sheaths glabrous; blades elongate, 7 to 12 mm 

 wide, sparsely pilose on the upper surface; panicles large, lax, droop- 

 ing, 25 to 35 cm long, the lower branches (2 to 4) as much as 20 cm 



