600 THE GKASS FAMILY. 



In cultivated and waste places, meadows, and pastures, throughout 

 Europe and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Abundant in Bri- 

 tain. Fl. the whole season, especially spring and early summer. Many 

 of the forms assumed by this ubiquitous species, difficult as they are to 

 distinguish, and passing gradually one into another, have been universally 

 recognized as species, although with characters very differently marked out 

 by different authors. The most prominent among the British ones are : — 



a. Rye-like field B. {B. secalinus, Eng. Bot. t. 1171.) A tall, cornfield 

 variety, with a loose, more or less drooping panicle, the flowers not so 

 closely imbricated, becoming quite distinct and spreading when in fruit, 

 most of tliese differences arising from being cultivated with the corn. 



b. Soft field B. (B. mollis, Eng. Bot. t. 1078.) One of the commonest 

 forms, in open, waste places, with a more erect panicle, either short and 

 compact, or long and slender, and the whole plant softly downy. 



c. Smooth field B. (B. racemosus, Eng. Bot. t. 1079.) Like the last 

 variety, but much more glabrous. 



d. Many -flowered field B. (B. multiflorus, Eng. Bot. t. 1884), includes 

 either of the preceding varieties, when the flowers are more numerous than 

 usual in the spikelet. 



7. Tall Broiue. Bromus giganteus, Linn. 



(Festiica, Eng. Bot. t. 1820, and F. triflora, t. 1918.) 

 An erect, glabrous perennial, 3 or 4 feet high, with a long, loose, more or 

 less drooping panicle, much resembhng the hairy B., but known at once 

 by the smaller spikelets and slender awns. The spikeleta, without the awns, 

 are 7 or 8 lines long, and contain from 3 to 6 flowers. Outer glumes un- 

 equal, the lowest 1-nerved, the second 3-nerved. Flowering glumes lan- 

 ceolate, almost nerveless, about 3 lines long ; the fine awn full twice that 

 length, inserted a little below the tip, as in Brome. Ovary glabrous, as in 

 Fescue. 



In hedges and woods, over the greater part of Europe and Kussian Asia, 

 except the extreme north. In Britain, not generally so common as the 

 hairy B., and still less so in Scotland. Fl. summer. 



XXXI. FESCUE. FESTIICA. 



Spikelets several-flowered, usually numerous, in a compact or sUghtly 

 spreading panicle (in one variety reduced to a simple spike). Outer glumes 

 unequal, keeled. Flowering glumes lanceolate, convex on the back, pointed 

 or tapering into an awn, scarcely scarious at the edges. Ovary glabrous, 

 rarely downy, with the styles terminal. 



A genus widely distributed over the temperate regions of the globe, and 

 numerous in forms if not in species. It differs from Poa only in the longer, 

 more pointed, or awned glumes ; from Brome in the inflorescence, in the 

 more terininal .points or awns, the edges of the glumes less scarious and 

 scarcely, if at all, extended beyond the commencement of the awn, as 

 well as in the glabrous ovary and more terminal styles of most of the 

 species. 



Awns none, or not above a line long. 

 Leaves, at least the radical ones, subulate and almost cylindrical. 



Stem seldom 2 feet high 1. Sheep'»F. 



