GRASSES OF SCOTLAND. 121 



more than half the length of the palea. Outer palea hairy, five-rib- 

 bed. Panicle drooping. (Plate LI.) 



Description. — It grows from two to three feet high. The root is 

 annual or biennial, fibrous. Stem erect, round, and slightly rough- 

 ish ; bearing four or five leaves, with striated hairy sheaths {tlie hairs 

 pointing dmonwards), the lower sheaths somewhat hispid, the upper 

 sheath crowned with an obtuse lacerated membranous ligule. Joints 

 five, small, rather hairy. Leaves broad, flat, rough, sharp-pointed, 

 with a few long straggling white hairs ; the radical leaves broadest. 

 Inflorescence simple panicled. Panicle drooping, at length pendulous, 

 its branches and upper part of the rachis very rough ; the lower 

 branches long, and generally in pairs. Spikelets usually an inch in 

 length, linear-lanceolate, of about eight awned florets, glossy, tinged 

 occasionally with brownish -purple. Calyx of two unequal acute 

 glumes (Fig. 1), the upper glume the longest, three-ribbed, the dorsal 

 rib minutely toothed nearly its whole length ; the lower glume with- 

 out lateral ribs, and toothed on the upper half of the keel. Florets 

 of twopaleae (Fig. 2), the outer palea of lowermost floret longer than 

 the cal}^, and about twice the length of the small glume ; bifid and 

 membranous at the summit ; five-ribbed, the dorsal rib minutely 

 toothed, and terminating in a long straight rough awn, about half 

 the length of the palea, and passing behind the membranous bifid 

 summit. The lower part of the palea hairy, especially the marginal 

 ribs. I7i7ier palea rather shorter than the outer palea, with two green 

 marginal ribs delicately fringed. 



Obs. — Bromus asper is distinguished from Bromus erectus, in the 

 tipper leaf being narrower than the radical leaves ; hairs on the 

 sheaths pointing downwards ; outer palea five-ribbed, and twice the 

 length of the small glume of the calyx ; — whereas in Bromus erectus 

 the upper leaf is broader than the radical leaves ; hairs on the 

 sheaths pointing upwards ; outer palea seven-ribbed, and not more 

 than one- third longer than the small glume of the calyx. 



From Bromus sterilis, in the outer palea being hairy and the awn 

 not the length of the palea ; — whereas in B. sterilis the outer palea 

 is never hairy, and the awn is always longer than the palea. 



This grass grows naturally in damp shad}- woods, and is never 



