•LASS HI. ORDER II.] BROMUS- 137 



Stem smooth. The lower leaves naked towards the base on tlie 

 under side, above on the margin somewhat hairy; the upper ones 

 clothed with a downy pubescence on the under side, and hairy above; 

 all rough on the margin. Inflorescence a wide-spreading, nearly sim- 

 ple panicle ; its branches rough ; its spikelets ovate-lanceolate, com- 

 pressed. Florets never becoming separated or cylindrical, but remain- 

 ing contiguous or crowded. Glumes, as well as the outer valve of the 

 glumelles, very pubescent. Ann longer than the florets, at length 

 spreading. " The variety found by Mr. Johns is scarcely a span high, 

 and has the glumes very soft with silky down, and the sheaths of the 

 leaves densely clothed with copious soft deflexed hairs" — Hook. 



Habitat. — Corn-fields. Rare. About Edinburgh — Smith. /g. 

 Sandy ground by the sea, near the Soap Rock, Lizard, Cornwall — Mr^ 

 C. A. Johns. 



Annual ; flowering in June and July. 



We have not been able to obtain other than cultivated specimens of 

 this plant: the description is taken from Smith, it is nearly allied to 

 B. secalinns. 



10. B. mollis, Linn. (Fig. 177.) soft, Brome-grass. Panicle erect, 

 branched, rather close ; spikelets slightly compressed ; florets 

 imbricated, downy ; awn straight, about as long as the glume 5 

 leaves very soft and downy. 



English Botany, t. 1078.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 153. — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 311. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 52. — Sinclair, H-ort. 

 Gram. Woburn. p. 176. 



Root fibrous. .S7e»i erect, from one to two or three feet high, stri- 

 ated, smooth or downy. Leaves linear, striated, very soft and downy, 

 as well as the close sheaths. Ligula short, obtuse, torn. Inflorescence 

 an erect, branched panicle, close, except when in flower, slightly 

 spreading, its branches rough and angular. Spikelets numerous, 

 nearly erect, slightly compressed, of from five to ten imbricated downy 

 florets. Glumes unequal, keeled, numerously ribbed, and downy ; the 

 margins membranous, pale. Glumelles equal : the obiter valve ovate- 

 oblong, numerously ribbed ; the margins and bifid extremity membra- 

 nous, concave, downy; awn straight, roughish, about the length of 

 the valve: inner valve membranous, obtuse, with two green, ciliated, 

 lateral ribs closely attached to the long, narrow, channelled seed. 

 Stigmas feathery. 



Habitat. — Fields, waste places, banks, and old walls ; very coravnon. 



Biennial ; flowering in June. 



This grass, which is extremely common, especially in poor exhausted 

 soil, is, like 'all other of the Brome-grasses, of little or no utility to the 

 agriculturist. Their herbage is coarse and innutritious, and the quan- 

 tity which they produce is mostly small, and refused by almost aB 

 cattle. 



VOL. I. T 



