386 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 
seem to be no good characters to distinguish this from F’. pRaTE 
We have a few native species of Festuca,—but they are of wittls 
or no value in Agriculture eget some "of them are indicative ofa poor 
soil. 
15. BRO’MUS, L. Brome Grass. 
£; 
(Greek, Broma, food ; Bromus was an oats.] 
Spikelets 5 -many-flowered in a loose panicle. youl mpc mem- 
branaceous ; the upper 3— asc the lower 1 — 5-ne Lower palea 
convex on the back, 5—9-nerved, a wned, from below te mostly 2-cleft 
apex. Upper palea Re ht A ip on “ihe t two keels, nally. adhering 
to the groove of the linear-oblong gram. pee 3. rse grasses 
with ol spikelets which are finally noddin; 
1. B. secali’n 
sielt orate-obong, 8-1 titan 5 Horets pubescent ; 
short imes very short o 
RyE Sener ‘Oia Chess. sas — 
Fr. Brome Seigle. Germ. Roggen-Trespe. Span. Bromo. 
Root eaten Culm 3-4 feet high, Seas mg Leaves 6-12 inches 
long, Jance-linear, nerved, scabrous ai ilose on the ue surface ; 
sheuths ne sir smooth ; ligule oblong, r mae use, laci sniisinnd entate. Pane 
icle 4-6 or 8 inches long, the branches semi- Shirt green: aeenlg simple, 
scabrous and Loeaeritegers gions a little remote at base, 50 as to ape 
pear distinct ath fiexuose rachis. mi 8 glume shorter, §-nerved, 
sometimes miueron C eamerees one 7-nerved, obtuse 0! emarginate. 
alea obs bom es T-nerved, slightly pot sclrbedngs or ihe & apex, 
rae © aun Resin! ee Bec the floret t, on an eee ae want- 
lea li —a $, pectin Sere 
ing, or a mere ru ee 
border, fo oman argins being folded Caryopsis cl y embraced b. 
iver palea, grooved on ee 8 with the upper ae doubled in ge groove, ait ee 
grounds, chiefly among wheat and rye: introduced. Native of Europe. Fl. 
June. Fr. July. 
Obs. This foreigner is a well-known pest among our crops of Wheat 
and Rye,—and occasion ally appears in the same fields, for a year or two, 
after the grain crop; but being an annual, it is soon choked out by the 
until the ground is again broken up, or pu 
their developement. The best preventive of this and all similar evils, in 
the grain-field, is to sow none but 
ut g¢ n seed. 
Among the curious valgar errors which vet infest the minds of credu- 
lous and careless observers of na tural phenomena, may be mentioned the 
no 
rm, of d rate Wheat,—produced by some. un, 
toward condition of the soil, or unpropitious season, OF some organic 
‘Fic. 263. A spikelet ° Oh Ct pie 
3 i 
L. Pani ee spreading, even in fruit; 
ee eee 
