24 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



quently. The first is rarely over G feet tall, with drooping blades^ 

 the inflorescence on leafless or nearly leafless shoots from the base of 

 the plant. This is found from Maryland southward. The other 

 species grows to a height of as much as 25 or 30 feet and forms, in 

 the alluvial river bottoms of the Southern States, dense thickets 

 called canebrakes. The racemes are borne on leafy branches, the 

 species flowering less frequently than the small cane. 



Stock are fond of the young plants and of the leaves and seeds, and 

 both species furnish much forage in localities where they are abun- 

 dant. The young shoots are sometimes used as a potherb. The 

 stems or culms of the large cane are used for fishing rods, pipestems, 

 baskets, mats, light scaffolding, and for a variety of other purposes. 



2. FESTUCEAE, THE FESCUE TRIBE. 



2. BROMTJS L., the brume-grasses. 



. Spikelets several to many flowered, the rachilla disarticulating 

 above the glumes and between the florets ; glumes unequal, acute, the 

 first 1 to 3 nerved, the second usually 3 to 5 nerved ; lemmas convex 

 on the back or keeled, 5 to 9 nerved, 2-toothed at the apex, awnless or 

 usually awned from between the teeth; palea usually shorter than 

 the lemma. 



Annual or perennial, low or rather tall grasses, with closed sheaths, 

 flat blades, and open or contracted panicles of large spikelets. Species 

 about 100, in temperate regions; about 43 species in the United 

 States, of which -IT are introductions, mostly from Europe. 



Type species: Bromus sccalinus L. 



Bronras L., Sp. PI. 76, 1753 ; Gen. PI., eel. 5, 33. 1754. Linnaeus describes 11 

 species, all but the last 2 of which are still retained in the genus. The cita- 

 tion given after Brornus in the Genera I'lantarum is "Mont. 32." This" refers 

 to figure 32 in the plate accompanying Monti's Catalog! Stirpium Agri Bononiensis 

 Prodromus, published in 1719. This figure represents a spikelet of Bromus 

 secalinus, or of a closely allied species. As Brotnu* sct-uH-mis is the first species 

 described in the Species Plantarum and was described in the flora of Sweden, 

 this species is chosen as the type. 



Ceratochloa Beauv., Ess. Agrost. 75, pi. 15, f. 7. 1812. A single species in- 

 cluded. Festuca unioloides Willd., which is the basis of Bromus it mol aides 

 (Willd.) H. B. K. 



Zerna Panz., Denkschr. Baier. Akad. Wiss. Miiench. 4: 296. 1813. (Ideen 

 Gatt. Graser 46, pi. 11, f. 3.) Eleven species are included. Bromus stcrilis 

 L., the one figured, is taken as the type. 



Serrafalcus Part., Rar. PI. Sic. 2: 14. 1840. Six species are included. Bro- 

 mus rac-cmosus L., on which the first species is based, is taken as the type. 



Forasaccus Bubani, Fl. Pyren. 4 : 380. 1901. Proposed for Bromus L., not 

 Bromus of the ancients, which is said to be wild oats. 



The section Ceratochloa has large compressed spikelets with com- 

 pressed-keeled glumes and lemmas. One species, Bromus unioloides 

 (Willd.) H. B. K., is cultivated as a forage grass under the name 

 of rescue grass or Schrader's brome-grass. This is an annual or bi- 

 ennial grass 1 to 2 feet tall, with pubescent sheaths and narrow pani- 

 cles of smooth spikelets as much as an inch long, the lemmas acumi- 



