36 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



1. JBromus catharticus Vahl. RESCUE GRASS. (Fig. 5.) Annual or 

 biennial; culms erect to spreading, as much as 100 cm tall; sheaths 

 glabrous or pubescent; blades narrow, glabrous or sparsely pilose; 

 panicle open, as much as 20 cm long, the branches as much as 15 cm 

 long, naked at base, in small plants the panicles reduced to a raceme 

 of a few appressed short-pediceled spikelets; spikelets 2 to 3 cm long, 

 6- to 12-flowered; glumes acuminate, about 1 

 cm long; lemmas glabrous, scabrous, or some- 

 tunes pubescent, acuminate, 1.5 cm long, closely 

 overlapping, concealing the short rachilla joints, 

 awnless or with an awn 1 to 3 mm long; palea 

 two-thirds as long as the lemma. o (B. un- 

 ioloides H. B. K.) Cultivated in the Southern 

 States as a winter forage grass. Escaped from 

 cultivation or sparingly introduced in waste 

 places throughout the Southern States and rarely northward (fig. 6). 

 Known also as Schrader's bromegrass. 



FIGURE 7.Bromus sitchensis, X 1. (Piper 3013, Alaska.) 



2. Bromus sitchensis Trin. (Fig. 7.) Stout smooth perennial; 

 culms 120 to 180 cm tall; sheaths glabrous; blades elongate, 7 to 12 mm 

 wide, sparsely pilose on the upper surface; panicles large, lax, droop- 

 ing, 25 to 35 cm long, the lower branches (2 to 4) as much as 20 cm 



