Dr. Smitn’s Obfervacions on the Britifo Species of Bromus. 293 
belongs to B, arvenfis, as above quoted. So in-the Sherardian her~ 
barium, along with authentic {pecimens from Scheuchzer and 
Monti of B. ereéus, with their own names for it, are. various others, 
fome with downy glumes, others with fmooth ones, to which 
Sherard has applied fuch a mafs of confufed fynonyms from the 
Bauhins, Ray and Tournefort, that they only ferve to fhew he had 
really no clear ideas upon the fubjeét, and that his. authority, like 
that of too many other Botanifts, is not to be implicitly relied on in 
matters of opinion or criticifm, however valuable in the cafe of 
original {pecimens of plants found or defcribed by. himfelf. 
With refpect to Vaillant, his figure leaves no doubt of B. erectus 
being the plant he intended, though it may or may not be the 
Feftuca pratenfis lanuginofa of Bauhin; and. his other citations are. 
obfcure, thofe of Ray certainly wrong. 
Bromus ereétus is eafily known by its black perennial downy root,. 
ereét panicle and {pikes, and efpecially by the radical leaves being 
much narrower than thofe on the item, perfeétly linear, and remark- 
ably ciliated with diftant long white hairs, pointing upwards. The: 
accurate Mr. Swayne, as well as Mr. Woodward, has noticed its affi-- 
nity to Fefuca, to which genus I might have been tempted to remove 
it, on account of the perennial root, and the inner glume of the 
corolla being downy rather than peétinated. The arifa however 
being, although a direét continuation of the caria, not ftritly ter- 
minal, as the glume feparates from it on each fide, but more efpecially 
the great affinity between this grafs and Bromus a/per, an indubitable 
Bromus, make me retain it in that genus. 
8. Bromus a/per. 
Hairy Wocd Brome-gra/s. 
B, panicula nutante ramof4, flofculis lanceolatis. teretiufculis fub- 
enerviis, foliis uniformibus: inferioribus hirfutis. 
Bromus 
