198 IIORTUS GRAMINEUS WOIUI RN EN SI S. 



lived plant, it increases and spreads very wide in one season. 

 It should be sown as soon as the seed is ripe in the autumn, 

 that the young plants may have sufficient strength before 

 the winter begins ; by this mode of culture it will flower and 

 ripen the seed much earlier than the time specified below ; 

 in that instance the seeds were sown in May. 



It delights most in a rich, light, siliceous soil. It is said 

 to have received the name saiigninale, not from its colour, 

 but from a mischievous trick of boys in Germany, thrusting 

 the spikelets up the noses of their companions, thereby 

 making them bleed. 



It flowers about the first week of August, and the seed is 

 ripe in the middle of September. 



BROMUS sterilis. Barren Brome-grass. 



Specific character : Panicle drooping, mostly simple; spike- 

 lets linear-lanceolate ; florets about seven, lanceolate, 

 compressed, seven-ribbed, furrowed ; awns longer than 

 the glumes ; leaves downy. 



JN'ative of Britain. Root annual. 



Experiments. — At the time of flowering, the produce from 

 a sandy soil is 29,947 lbs. per acre. 



It has been asserted that the seeds of this grass seldom 

 arrive at maturity ; but there is hardly a grass, either in a 

 natural or cultivated state, that ripens more seed than the 

 barren brome-grass. Mr. Curtis aflSrms, that it acquired the 

 name sterilis, or barren, from its inutility with respect to 

 cattle : which appears most probable. Ray calls it great 

 wild oat-grass, or drank. 



The long sharp awns with which the spikelets are armed 

 must prevent cattle from eating it. It grows chiefly under 

 hedges, and on banks by the road-sides, where it is very 

 common ; but it is seldom found beyond the reach of the 

 shade. I never could observe that any of it had been 

 touched by cattle. 



It flowers in the first and second weeks of July, and 

 the seed is ripe about the beginning and middle of August. 



