September 30, 1909 ' ' ' 



Wood's Botany (1866) notes it "in wheat-fields and waste grounds, 

 rare," and Gray's Manual (5th ed., 1876) "in wheat fields, 

 scarce/ 1 In 1882 Ilolliek and Britton report it as "not com- 

 mon" on Staten Island, New York (2)j in 1890 it is a "recent 

 addition" to the flora of Illinois (3); and in 1893 Dr. T. C. Por- 

 ter characterizes it as a "fugitive, and very rare" in Pennsyl- 

 vania (4). Even as late as 1896 Britton and Brown in their 

 Illustrated Flora find it no more than "locally adventive," and 

 in the present year (1908) the new edition of Gray's Manual 

 characterizes it as "infrequent.'" 



On the Pacific coast it is evidently more abundant, and it is 

 found from Washington to Arizona. If, however, it was pres- 

 ent in California at the time of the geological survey it escaped 

 notice, as it does not appear in the botanical volumes (1880). 

 Indeed the earliest mention I am able to find is in Dr. David- 

 son's "List of the plants of Los Angeles county" (undated, but 

 published in 1892), where a record is made based on a specimen 

 collected by Dr. Hasse at Santa Monica. In the next year he 

 has seen a "few plants" at Pasadena and Los Angeles (5), and 

 in his later "Catalogue" (1896) he notes it "on streets and in 

 wastes, not common." But in that same year I saw it quite 

 common in several places in San Diego county, as at Santa Ysa- 

 bel and Oceanside. 



Northern records are few and of recent date but indicate 

 that this brome is well established and abundant. They are: Piper 

 and Reattie, Fl. Palouse Region 29. 1900, "very common;" Jepson, 

 Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 71. 1901, "very common;" Piper, Fl. State of 

 Wash. (Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 11: 144. 1906), "apparently wide 

 spread." From the data now at hand it is not possible to deter- 

 mine with certainty in what part of the Pacific coast it made its 

 first appearance, but it was probably in the north, whence it has 

 worked its way southward — or there may have been more than 

 one center of distribution. 



Bromus maximus and its variety Gussonz, the latter the 

 form exclusively represented in California, so far as is known, 

 appear to be present in the United States, unless as doubtful 

 waifs, only on the Pacific coast, where the variety is found 



