708 GRAMINES (Stapf). [ Briza. 
Annual or perennial ; blades flat and rather broad, or convolute and narrow ; 
ligules hyaline; panicle effase with capillary braneliets and pedicels and nodding 
sata sometimes reduced to a raceme, or straight, contracted or almost spici- 
Species about 11; 4 mainly in the Mediterranean region, of which 2 have been 
introduced into various wi pli countries, 1 all over temperate Europe and 
the rest in South Amer 
unas Yin Tote ac. ie ae ye ee 
Spikelets 14-2 lin. ie nae as Any ee ... (2) minor. 
1. B. maxima (Linn. Sp. PI. 70); annual, glabrous (except the 
spikelets) ; culms fascicled, geniculate, 1-2 ft. long, smooth, 2-4- 
noded ; internodes exsert ted, a t least ultimately ; sheaths rather loose, 
smooth, the lower thin and ‘eohactly nerved ; ligules oblong, up to 
1-21 lin. long ; blades linear, acute or long tapering to a fine ’ point, 
usually 3-6 in. by 2-3 lin., sometimes much shorter and narrower, 
flat, flaccid, slightly scabrid or almost smooth ; paniele oblong, 
nodding, secund, lax, sparingly branehed or reduced to a 6~2- spiculate 
raceme or a solitary spikelet, 1-3 in. long ; rhachis filiform, flexuous, 
seabrid or smooth below; branches distant, usually solitary, simple, 
bifid or distantly branched from near the base, subcapillary, seabrid, 
the lowest up to 2 in. long; pedicels 3-10 lin. long, smooth above ; 
spikelets nodding, ovate, 5-8 lin. by 4- é lin., 7—17-flowered, 
scarious, straw-coloured to ‘purple ; glumes very broadly- -ovate, obtuse, 
sub-7- to sub-9-nerved, lower icut 21 lin. long, upper slightly 
longer; valves very close, ais broadly cordate- ovate, shortly and 
obtusely a acuminate, 3-32 ong, lower glabrous or finely 
bescent near the base bee clavaae -tipped hairs, upper silky- 
pubescent, all 7—9-nerved, side-nerves joining at the base, hyaline 
margins broad; pales b roadly obovate, almost 2 lin. long, winged, 
wings ‘eee n ciliolate ; lodieules up to 2 lin. long ; anthers up to 
0 lin, long int e lower flowers, Tach smaller in the upper? ; 
grain Ant ipe obovate, convexo-concave, over Mi ae 1. b ie din. 
Trin. in Mém. Acad. St. Pétersh. sér. 6 (1831) 362, and in 
Gram. Gen. 362; Nees in Linnea, vii. 326; "Kunth, Eauin: i, 371; 
Nees, Fl, Afr. y ree 415; — Syn. Pl Glam i‘ 283; Durand 
& Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. v 
SourH pian. without preter st stoning 
Coast Reet Cape Div ear Capetown, Drége? Burchell, 95! Sea 
Point, Wilms 3894 ! Table fet area Ecklon Mtied, 243! MacGillivray. 399! 
Mudd! Constantia, Ecklon, the railway, near Rondebosch, Wolley Dod, 
! Paa 
1 Gilli : moist meadows, PE 
Paarl, 400-1000 ft., Drége! Tulbagh nbn near Tulbagh Waterfall, Tulbagh 
loof, &e., Ecklon §° Zeyher! Stellenbosch Div. ; Hottentots Holland, Ecklon. 
Riversdale ee Great Vals River, Burchell 6541! between Zoetemelks River 
t River, Burchell, 6840! Port Elizabeth Div. ; along the cost, 
E.S.C.A. ae dof 148! Albany Div. ; 3 near Grahamstown, MacOwan ! uxt vies 
Bathurst Div. ; ’Port Alfred, Hutton 
Mediterranean region ; introduced into the Cape and Australia, 
