Order GRAMINE^. 



Genus, ft row us ; I Sub-Order, Festucacetc. 



GENUS XXIV. BROMUS, Linnaeus. 



Spikelets pedicelled, several flowered, erect or drooping, panicled. 

 Empty glumes rounded on the back, rigid, imawned. Flowering glume 

 rounded on the back, y-nerved, bifid at the top, and with a straight or 

 curved awn between the lobes. Palea 2-nerved, ciliate on the nerves. 

 Scales 2-entire. Stamens 3. Ovary narrow, obovate and crowned on 

 the top with a mass of glutinous hairs. Styles united at the base. Gram 

 free, top hairy. DISTRIBUTION OF GENUS : TEMPERATE REGIONS 

 OF BOTH HEMISPHERES. Etymology : From the Greek word for 

 food, as applied to oats and other cereal grasses. 



l.BROMUS ARENARIUS. 



SEA SIDE BROME GRASS. 



(Plate LVL, A.) 



BROMUS ARENARIUS, Labill, PL Nov. Holl., I., 23, t. 28. BROMUS 

 AUSTRALIS, R. Brown, Prod. 178. BROMUS ARENARIUS, Labill, 

 Bentham Fl. Austral., VII., 66 1. BROMUS ARENARIUS, Labill, Hook, 

 fil., Fl. N.Z., I., 310. BROMUS ARENARIUS, Labill, Hook, fil., Handb. 

 Fl. N.Z., I., 341. 



A TUFTED, densely villous grass, of littoral habitats. Flowers December 

 February. Annual. Culms 324 inches high. Leaves flat, villous. 

 Panicle $ 10 inches long, very broad, open, drooping, villous, branches 

 slender, 35 nate. Spikelets green, f i inch long, on slender pedicles, 

 5 _8 flowered. Empty glumes 3 5 nerved, much shorter than the 

 flowering, pubescent or ciliate. Flowering glume y-nerved, ciliate, 

 ovate, acuminate, bifid at the top, awn as long as the glume. Palea 

 linear, bifid, ciliate on the 2 nerves, with a scale oblique, acute. Ovary 

 narrow, crowned on the top with a mass of glutinous hairs. Grain 

 linear, with a hard hairy scale on the top, which generally breaks oil. 



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