224 



GRAMINEAE. 



14. Bromus unioloides (Willd.) H.B.K. Schraders Brome-grass. 

 Southern Chess. (Fig. 519.) 



Festuca unioloides Willd. Hort. Berol. i: 3. pi. j, 

 1806. 



Bromus unioloides H.B.K. Nov. Gen. i: 151. 



1815- 

 Bromus Schraderi Kunth, Enum. 1:416. 1833. 



Culms 6 / -3 tall, erect, simple, smooth and 

 glabrous. Sheaths usually shorter than the in- 

 ternodes, the lower often overlapping, smooth 

 or rough, and glabrous or frequently pubes- 

 cent; ligule i // -2 // long; leaves 3'-i3 x long, i // - 

 4 r/ wide, usually rough, at least above; panicle 

 a'-io' in length, the branches erect or ascend- 

 ing, or the lower branches of the larger panicles 

 widely spreading; spikelets much compressed, 

 6-ioflowered; empty scales acute, the first 3-5- 

 nerved, the second longer, s-g-nerved; flower- 

 ing scales 6 // -8 // long, very acute, minutely 

 scabrous, bearing an awn less than i // long or 

 awnless. 



Kansas (?) to the Indian Territory, Texas and 

 Mexico. Widely distributed in South America. 

 May-July. 



85. NARDUS L. Sp. PI. 53- 1753- 



A low perennial tufted grass, with setaceous rigid leaves and a terminal one-sided slender 

 spike. Spikelets i-flowered, narrow, sessile and single in each notch of the rachis. Scales 

 2, the lower empty, adnate to the rachis, or almost wanting, the upper flower-bearing, nar- 

 row, with involute and hyaline margins; palet narrow, 2-nerved. Stamens 3. Style elon- 

 gated, undivided. Stigma elongated, short-papillose. Grain linear, glabrous, enclosed in 

 the scale, usually free. [Name Greek, of uncertain application.] 



A monotj-pic genus of the Old World. 



i. Nardus stricta L,. Wirebent. 



Nardus stricta L. Sp. PI. 53. 1753. 



Culms 5'-is' tall, erect, simple, rigid, 

 roughish. Sheaths usually at the base of the 

 culm; ligule y 2 " long, rounded; leaves seta- 

 ceous, stiff, rough, the i or 2 culm leaves 

 about i' long, erect, the basal ones numer- 

 ous, 2'-5' long; spike \'-$ f in length, strict; 

 spikelets i-flowered, 3 // -4 // long, arranged 

 alternately in 2 rows on one side of the erect 

 slender rachis, often purplish; lower scale 

 empty, very short, adnate to the rachis, 

 sometimes almost wanting; flowering scale 

 3 // ~4 // long, scabrous, long-acuminate or 

 short-awned. 



Introduced into Newfoundland and at Am- 

 hcrst, Mass. Adventive from Europe. July- 

 Aug. 





