634 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



* # Flowers oblong or lanceolate, awnless or nearly so (l"-4" long) : grain ojlen 



free! (Root perennial : culms mostly tall : leaves jiat.} 



4. P. EiAxiOR, L. (TALLER or MEADOW FESCUE.) Panicle narrow, 

 contracted before and after flowering, erect, with short branches ; spikelets crowded, 

 5-10-flowered; the flowers rather remote, oblong-lanceolate ; lower palct 5-nerved, 

 scariouS-margined, blunt, acute, or rarely with a distinct but very short awn. 

 The type is large, 3 4 high ; spikelets about 6" long, in an ample and com- 

 pound panicle. Rich grass-land. Var. PRATENSIS (F. pratensis, Huds.) is 

 lower (l-3 high), with a simpler or close panicle, of smaller or narrower 

 spikelets ; and abounds in grass-lands. June- Aug. (Nat. from Eu.) 



5. P. lllltans, Willd. Panicle of several long and slender spreading branches, 

 mostly in pairs, drooping when old, rough, naked below, bearing near their ex- 

 tremity a few ovate 3-5-flowered spikelets (3" long) on pretty long, pedicels; 

 flowers ovate-oblong, rather obtuse, close together, coriaceous, smooth, very obscurely 

 5-nerved. Rocky woods and copses. July. Culm 2 4 high, naked above : 

 leaves broadly linear, taper-pointed, dark green, often rather hairy. 



38. BROMUS, L. BROME-GRASS. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets 5 - many-flowered, panicled. Glumes unequal, membranaceous ; the 

 lower 1 - 5-, the upper 3 - 9-nerved. Lower palet cither convex on the back or 

 compressed-keeled, 5 - 9-nerved, awned or bristle-pointed from below the mostly 

 2-clcft tip : upper palet at length adhering to the groove of the oblong or linear 

 grain. Stamens 3. Styles attached below the apex of the ovary. Coarse 

 Grasses, with large spikelets, at length drooping, on pedicels thickened at the 

 apex. (An ancient name for the Oat, from (3pop.os,food.) 



1 . Lower palet convex on the back ; the flowers imbricuttd over one another before 

 expansion : lower glume 3 - 5-nerved, the upper 5 - 9 -nerved. 



# Annuals or biennials, weeds of cultivation, introduced into grain-fields, or rarely in 



waste grounds, probably all derived from the European B. arvensis, L. 



1. B. SECALINUS, L. (CHEAT or CHESS.) Panicle spreading, even in fruit, 

 the drooping peduncles little branched ; spikelets oblong-ovate, turgid, smooth, of 

 8-10 rather distant flowers; lower palet rather longer than the upper, short- 

 awned or awnless ; sheaths nearly glabrous. Too common in wheat-fields. 

 June, July. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. B. RACEM6sus, L. (UPRIGHT CHESS.) Panicle erect, simple, rather 

 narrow, contracted in fruit ; flowers closer, more imbricated; lower palet decidedly 

 exceeding the upper, bearing an awn of its own length ; culm more slender ; sheaths 

 sometimes hairy : otherwise nearly as in the last, for which it is often mistaken 

 in this country. (Adv. fromEu.) 



3. B. MOLLIS, L. (SorT CHESS.) Panicle erect, closely contracted in fruit ; 

 spikelets conical-ovate, somewhat flattened ; the flowers closely imbricated, downy 

 (as also the leaves, &c.) ; lower palet acute, long-awned. Wheat-fields, New York 

 to Virginia: scarce. June. (Adv. from Eu.) 



* * Perennial: indigenous. (Lower glume strongly 3-nerved, the upper 5-nerved. 



4. B. Kalmii, Gray. (WILD CHESS.) Panicle simple, small (3' - 4' long) ; 

 spikelets drooping on capillary peduncles, closely 7 - 12-flowered, densely silky 



