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



spring and early summer, and on the approach of the summer dry 

 season they ripen their seed and turn brown. They often cover 

 vast areas and have become a great pest. The commonest species are 

 B. rub&ns L., with contracted panicles of narrow usually purplish 

 spikelets; B. hordeaceus L., with compact panicles of short turgid 

 usually pubescent spikelets like those of B. secodmus; B. villosus 

 Forsk., with open rather few-flowered panicles and narrow spike- 

 lets with awns as much as 2 inches long; and B. tectorum L. (fig. 4), 

 a rather small softly pubescent species, with drooping panicles of 

 narrow spikelets. Bromws trimi Desv., found chiefty in the desert 

 regions of California, introduced from Chile, is peculiar in having 

 a bent awn twisted below. Bromus arenarius Labill., a recent intro- 

 duction from Australia, is becoming common. This has an open 

 panicle with capillary curved pedicels and short, pubescent spikelets. 



The perennial species of Bromus are important forage grasses on 

 the mountain ranges of the Western States. The annual species are 

 good forage grasses w T hen they are young, but they are rather eva- 

 nescent. The fruits of B. villosus. and B. rubens and their allies are 

 injurious to stock, the sharp-pointed florets working their way into 

 the eyes and nostrils. BromMs secalmm is grown for hay in Wash- 

 ington, in Oregon, and in Georgia. 



For a revision of the species of Bromus found in the United States, 

 see Shear, U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Agrost. Bull. 23. 1900. 



3. FESTUCA L., the fescue grasses. 



Spikelets few to several flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above 

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

 the first sometimes very small; lemmas rounded on the back, mem- 

 branaceous or somewhat indurate, 5-nerved, the nerves often obscure, 

 acute or rarely obtuse, awned from the tip or rarely from a minutely 

 bifid apex. 



Annual or perennial low or rather tall grasses of varied habit, the 

 spikelets in narrow or open panicles. Species about 100, in the tem- 

 perate and cool regions; about 40 species in the United States, 7 of 

 which are introductions from Europe. 



Type species: Festuca ovina L. 



P'estuca L., Sp. PI. 73, 1753; Gen. PI., ed. 5, 33. 1754. Linnaeus describes 11 

 species. Festuca ovina is chosen as the type, as it is the first of the original 

 species that is economic and is described in the flora of Sweden. Most of the 

 original species are still retained in Festuca but F. flecumbens is now placed 

 in Sieglingia, F. fluitans in Panicularia, and F. cristata in Koeleria (.K. 

 phleoides). 



Vulpia Gmel., Fl. Badens. 1: 8. 1805. One species, V. 'myuros, based on 

 Festuca myuros L., is described, and two species of Festuca having a single 

 stamen are mentioned in a note. Festuca myuros is taken as the type. 



Schedonorus Beauv., Ess. 'Agrost. 99, pi. 19, f. 2. 1812. The first of the 25 

 species included and the one figured is "Bromus elatior" (L.) KoeL, based on 

 Festuca elatior. The figure shows a floret with a short awn below the minutely 

 bidentate apex, as found in occasional specimens of F. elatior, which species is 

 taken as the type. 



