152 TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Bromus. 



Root fibrous, downy. Stem 3 feet high, round, smooth, with 4 or 

 5 somewhat downy knots. Leaves linear, pointed, flat, with 

 many minutely hairy ribs ; the edges, and upper side, besprinkled 

 with longer hairs. Sheaths striated, smooth and naked. Stipula 

 short and blunt. Panicle erect ; the lower branches whorled, 

 and somewhat compound ; upper alternate and simple ; all an- 

 gular and rough, spreading as the seed ripens. Spikelets ovate- 

 oblong ; their Jtorets ixnbricated whilst in bloom ; minutely 

 downy towards the edges and summit; convex at the back, with- 

 out any keel ; obscurely 2-ribbed at each side ; subsequently, 

 by the inflexion of their edges, the florets become cylindrical, 

 and their common stalk appears between them. The apins are 

 sometimes much shorter than the glumes, inserted below the 

 bluntish clovea point, and more or less wavy. The inner valve 

 is veiy obtuse, its ribs strongly toothed, or fringed, with distant 

 bristles. Styles from the opposite sides of the germen, below 

 the top. Seed elliptic-oblong ; convex and loose at the back ; 

 channelled along the front, or upper surface, to which the chan- 

 nelled permanent inner valve of the corolla is closely attached. 

 As the seed ripens, the spikelets become pendulous. 

 A useless, and rather troublesome, weed in arable land. 



2. B. veliif.inus. Downy Rye Brome-grass. 



Panicle spreading; scarcely subdivided. Spikelets ovate- 

 oblong, of from ten to fifteen crowded, elliptical, downy 

 florets. Awns as long as the glumes. Leaves slightly 

 hairy. 



B. velutinus. Schrad. Germ. v. 1. 349. t. 6./. 3. Hook. Scot. 41 . 

 B. multiflorus. Sm. Tr. of Linn. Soc.v.4. 283. Fl. Br. 126. Engl. 



Bot. V. 27. 1. 1 884. Knapp t. 80. 

 Festuca graminea, glumis hirsutis. Bauh. Pin. 9. Theatr. 143, y. 



Scheuchz. Jgr. 250. t. 5.f. 9. 

 F. spicis habitioribus, glumis incanis. Petiv. Concord. Gram. n. 106. 



Dill, in Rati Syn. 414, 



In cornfields, rare. 



Between Edinburgh and New Haven, 



Annual. July. 



Scarcely so tall as the foregoing. Panicle with almost entirely 

 simple branches, and fewer spikelets, which are larger, and their 

 glumes clothed all over with soft pubescence. Florets never be- 

 coming separated, or cylindrical, but remaining contiguous, or 

 crowded ; though rather less so, and at the same time more nu- 

 merous, in our specimen than in those sent by Professor Schra- 

 der, on whom I am obliged to rely for its not being B. multi^ 

 Jlorus of Weigel, which he declares to be arvensis. 



Haller confounded this and the preceding under his n. 1502, 



