28 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
spring and early summer, and on the approach of the summer dry 
season they ripen their seed and turn brown. They often cover 
vast areas and have become a great pest. The commonest species are 
B. rubens L., with contracted panicles of narrow usually purplish 
spikelets; B. hordeaceus L., with compact panicles of short turgid 
usually pubescent spikelets like those of B. secalinus; B. villosus - 
Forsk., with open rather few-flowered panicles and narrow spike- 
lets with awns as much as 2 inches long; and B. tectorum L. (fig. 4), 
a rather small softly pubescent species, with drooping panicles of 
narrow spikelets. Bromus trinii Desv., found chiefly in the desert 
regions of California, introduced from Chile, is peculiar in having 
a bent awn twisted below. Bromus arenarius Labill., a recent intro- 
duction from Australia, is becoming common. This has an open 
panicle with capillary curved pedicels and short, pubescent spikelets. 
The perennial species of Bromus are important forage grasses on 
the mountain ranges of the Western States. The annual species are 
good forage grasses when they are young, but they are rather eva- 
nescent. The fruits of B. villosus and B. rubens and their allies are 
injurious to stock, the sharp-pointed florets working their way into 
the eyes and nostrils. Bromus secalinus is grown for hay in Wash- 
ington, in Oregon, and in Georgia. 
For a revision of the species of Bromus found in the United States, 
see Shear, U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Agrost. Bull. 23. 1900. 
3. Festuca L., the fescue grasses. 
Spikelets few to several flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above 
the glumes and between the florets; glumes narrow, acute, unequal. 
the first sometimes very small; lemmas rounded on the back, mem- 
branaceous or somewhat indurate, 5-nerved, the nerves often obscure, 
acute or rarely obtuse, awned from the tip or rarely from a minutely 
bifid apex. 
Annual or perennial low or rather tall grasses of varied habit, the 
spikelets in narrow or open panicles. Species about 100, in the tem- 
perate and cool regions; about 40 species in the United States, 7 of 
which are introductions from Europe. 
Type species: Festuca ovina L. 
Festuca L., Sp. Pl. 73, 1753; Gen. Pl., ed. 5, 38. 1754. Linneeus describes 11 
species. Festuca ovina is chosen as the type, as it is the first of the original 
species that is economic and is described in the flora of Sweden. Most of the 
original species are still retained in Festuca but F. decumbens is now placed 
in Sieglingia, F. fluitans in Panicularia, and F. cristata in VWoeleria (K. 
phleoides). 
Vulpia Gmel., Fl. Badens. 1: 8. 1805. One species, V. myuros, based on 
Festuca myuros J.., is described, and two species of Festuca having a single 
stamen are mentioned in a note. Festuca myuros is taken as the type. 
Sehedonorus Beauv., Ess. Agrost. 99, pl. 19, f. 2. 1812. The first of the 25 
species included and the one figured is “ Bromus elatior”’ (.) Koel., based on 
Festuca elatior. The figure shows a floret with a short awn below the minutely 
bidentate apex, as found in occasional specimens of Ff’, elatior, which species is 
taken as the type, 
