240 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The panicle of flowers is long and capillary, very slender, pur- 

 ple and glossy ; waves beautifully in the air. 



Briza. L. 3. 2. Quaking-Grass. 



From the Greek for balance, from the balancing state of the 

 spikelets. Loudon. 



B. media. L. Is a foot or more high, with few flowers on 

 spreading, small, purple branches ; introduced in the vicinity of 

 Boston. Big. It is not a grass that promises to be of much 

 utility as food for cattle. 



Bromus. L. 3. 2. 



" A name given by the Greeks to a sort of wild oat." Loudon. 

 This is a genus of plants of little use or of injurious influence. 



B. secalinus. L. Chess, or Cheat, or Rye Broom-Grass. 

 This is the well-known chess of the wheat field, especially when 

 the grain, as rye or wheat, is winter-killed. This has given origin 

 to the notion, that wheat in this case changes into this plant ; a 

 notion about as probable as that tobacco changes into cotton. It 

 is singular, however, that the chess should often be so abundant 

 where the rye or wheat is cut off". It is an annual plant. If the 

 farmer does not intend to raise chess, he must have his seed- 

 wheat free from it, and his ground destitute of the seed. When 

 the seed is ground with the wheat, the flour is much injured, and 

 seems to have narcotic powers. Loudon. 



Three species of Bromus, ciliatus, L., purgans, L., and pu- 

 bescens, Muhl., are not in sufficient quantity to receive much at- 

 tention. The seeds of B. mollis, L., are said to be deleterious. 

 Loudon. 



Dactylis. L. 3. 2. 



D. glomerata. L. Orchard Grass. From the Greek for 

 finger, from the imaginary resemblance of its heads of flowers to 

 the fingers. Loudon. 



This is a beautiful and well-known grass, 2 or 3 feet high, with a 

 spreading, one-sided top, and much larger towards the bottom, in 



