278 GRASSES OF BRITAIN. 



Bromus PATULUS. 



Patent Brome- Grass. 



Plate CXXVII. 



Specific Characters. — Panicle patent. Spikelets lanceolate. Outer 

 palea nine-ribbed. 



Description. — Root annual, fibrous. Stem erect, round, hard, 

 nearly solid, smooth, except just below the panicle, scarcely polished, 

 from nine inches to two feet or more high, bearing four or five leaves 

 with striated sheaths shorter than their leaves ; the upper sheath 

 smooth, or nearly so, the lower sheaths soft and pubescent. Ligules 

 prominent and ragged. Joints usually four, more or less hairy, 

 mostly covered by the sheaths. Leaves flat, narrow, pointed, hairy, 

 especially on the upper surface. Lrftorescence simple panicled, at 

 first erect, spreading when in fruit, and when in seed drooping to a 

 side ; the rachis and branches rough ; the branches on the upper part 

 arising in pairs or threes, and mostly in fives on the lower part. Spike- 

 lets lanceolate, not hairy, usually of fourteen awned florets, and two 

 glumes ; apex of large glume situated half-way between the base of the 

 glume and the summit of the second floret on the same side. Glumes 

 two, unequal, membranous at the margins, roughish on the keels ; 

 outer glume the smaller, three-ribbed ; inner glume five-ribbed, and 

 often somewhat awned by a slight elongation of the middle rib. 

 Florets of two paleae ; the outer palea of lowermost floret longer than 

 the glumes ; nine-ribbed, the two marginal ribs the most distinct ; 

 it is either bifid or entire at the summit, membranous and glossy at 

 the margins, twice as long as broad, and when opened the superior 

 margins exhibit an obtuse angle. Inner palea not as long as the outer 

 palea, reaching as far up as the base of the awn, thin, white, obtuse, 

 membranous, furnished with two green marginal ribs fringed with 

 stout, white hairs. Awns erect, rough, slightly spreading when dry, 

 arising from a little below the summit of the outer palea, and rather 

 longer than the palea except in the lowermost floret. Ovarium hairy 

 on the summit. Styles two, short, arising from the side. Stigmas 

 feathery. Filaments three, slender, short. Anthers small, notched 

 at each end. Scales small. 



Bromus putulus, Koch, Kunth. 



