TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Bromus. 159 



feathery. Seed linear, cliannelled above, blunt and downy at the 

 summit, slightly attached to the inner valve, not at all to the 

 outer, sometimes indeed quite loose. 



This gigantic grass has, like the last species, some points of agree- 

 ment with Festuca, especially in the shape of its glumes, the 

 finer fringe of the inner one, and the narrow, almost perfectly 

 loose, seed. The root however is certainly not perennial, nor the 

 awn terminal. In agriculture this species is useless, but hardly 

 in any way troublesome to the farmer. 



The exotic B. inermis is another ambiguous species, agreeing in 

 shape of glumes, very short awns, and loose seed, with Festuca, to 

 which genus it is referred by Schreber, Haller, and Moench. 



9. B. sterilis. Barren Brome-grass. 



Panicle drooping, mostly simple. Spikelets linear-lanceo- 

 late, Floi'ets about seven, lanceolate, compressed, seven- 

 ribbed, furrowed. Awns longer than the glumes. Leaves 

 downy. 



B. sterilis. Linn. Sp. PL 113. fVilld. v. I. 433. Fl. Br. 134. Engl. 



Bot. V. 15. t. 1030. Tr. of Linn. Soc. v. 4. 295. Curt. Lond- 

 fasc. \. t.9. Mart. Rust. t. 125. Knapp t. 84. Ger. Em. 76. f. 



Hook. Scot. 43. Sincl. 177. Schrnd. Germ. v. 1. 364. Host Gram. 



v.l. 13. t. 16. Leers37. t.\\.f.4. Ehrh. Calam. 27. 

 B. grandiflorus a. Weig. Ohs. 9. t. \.f. 6. 

 B. n. 1505. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 237. 

 Festuca avenacea sterilis elatior, seu Bromos Dioscoridis. Rail 



Syn.4\2. 3Ioris. i).3.212. sect. 8. t.7.f. 11. 

 Gramen avenaceum, panicula sparsa, locustis majoribus et arista- 



tis. Scheuchz. Agr. 258. t. o. f. 14. 



In fields, waste ground, hedges, and on walls, common. 



Annual. June, July. 



Root fibrous, small. Stems erect, 18 inches or 2 feet high, leafy, 

 rather slender, round, smooth, sometimes taking root from the 

 lower joints. Leaves linear, narrow, flaccid, soft and downy on 

 both sides, with a few longer hairs at the edges towards the 

 bottom. Sheaths striated, angular, clothed more or less with 

 deflexed hairs. Stipula short, obtuse, finally torn. Panicle a span 

 long, spreading, like the last, but smaller and less subdivided. 

 Spikelets pendulous, lanceolate, rough to the touch, tinged with 

 purpUsli brown, an inch long. Florets finally more remote, as 

 well as more numerously and strongly ribbed, than the pre- 

 ceding, with intermediate furrows ; the inner valve notched, its 

 ribs more strongly fringed. Jwn purplish, half as long again as 

 its glume. Nectary deeply divided. Stamens always 3, as in all 

 theforegoing. Germ e«obovate. 5<j/ies lateral, very short. Stigmas 

 small, feathery, cylindrical. Seed lanceolate, channelled along 

 the upper side, and united to the inner valve of the corolla. 



