GRAMINEAE 371 



488. BRO V MUS, L. 



[Or. Brana, food ; Bromos was an ancient name for Oats.] 

 Spikelets ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, somewhat compressed, 3- or 5- 

 to many-flowered, in a loose panicle. Glumes unequal, the lower, 

 1- to 5-nerved, the upper, 3- to 9-nerved. Lower palea convex, 

 bifid at apex, usually awned a little below the tip ; upper palea 

 pectinate-ciliate on the two keels, finally adhering to the groove of 

 the linear-oblong grain. Stamens 3. Coarse grasses, with rather 

 large spikelets, which are finally nodding. 



1. B. ci 1 hit UK, L. Panicle compound, with elongated branches ; 

 spikelets lanceolate; florets pubescent, and conspicuously ciliate, 

 rather longer than the straight awn. 



B. pubescens. Muhl. $ FL Cestr. ed. 2. p. 70. 

 CILIATE BROMUS. Wild Brome-grass. 



Perennial. Culm 3 to 4 feet high, smooth above ; nodes black. Leaves 6 to 12 

 inches long, pilose on the upper surface ; sheaths nerved, the lower ones retrorsely 

 pilose, the upper ones smooth. Panicle very loose, the branches in pairs, or 3 to 

 5, slender, subdivided, flexuose and sharply scabrous ; spikelets about 10-flowered ; 

 tower glume smaller, almost subulate, 1-nerved, the upper one 3-nerved. Lower 

 palea 7-nerved, clothed with appressed hairs. 

 Hob. Woodlands i frequent. FL June. Fr. July. 



2. B. secaltnus, L. Panicle-branches nearly simple ; spikelets ovate- 

 oblong, somewhat turgid ; florets smooth, distinct, longer than the 

 flexuose awn. 



BYE BROMUS. Cheat. Chess. 



Annual. Culm 3 to 4 feet high, smooth; nodes pubescent. Leaves 6 to 12 inches 

 long, rough and pilose on the upper surface; sheaths smooth; ligule oblong, lacin- 

 iate-dentate. Panicle 4 to 8 inches long, the branches semi-verticillate ; rough 

 and pubescent; spikelets 8- or 10-flowered ; tower glume shorter, 5-nerved, some- 

 times mucronate,* the upper one 7-nerved, obtuse, or emarginate. Lower palea, 

 obscurely 7-nrvd, slightly pubescent near the apex, the awn sometimes want- 

 ing, or a mere rudiment. Grain closely embraced by the lower palea, the upper 

 palea doubled in the groove, and adherent. 

 Hob. Grain-fields, and pastures. Nat. of Europe. Fl. June. Fr. July. 



Obs. This foreigner is a well-known intruder among our crops of 

 Wheat and Rye, and often appears in the same fields, for a year 

 or two, after those crops ; but, being an annual, it is soon choked 

 out by the perennial grasses. The vulgar error, that this plant is 

 transformed Wheat, came to us with the earliest Immigrants, and, 

 notwithstanding the boasted "march of mind," it yet prevails among 

 a certain class of our farmers, to a considerable extent. Any one, 

 however, who has had an opportunity to observe the uniformity and 

 constancy of the Laws which govern the development of living 

 bodies, and yet persists in believing in the transmutation of genera 

 and species, may be fairly placed in the category of him who be- 

 lieves in equivocal generation, of whom it is said, in the Amoenitates 

 Academicae, "certe fungum habet pro cerebro." 



3. B. mtUis? L. Panicle erect, somewhat spreading; spikelets 

 ovate-lanceolate, compressed ; florets pubescent, closely imbricated, 

 about as long as the straight awn. 

 B. arvensis. L? $ Fl. Cestr. ed. 2. p. 69. 



