230 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



than their leaves, the uppermost one very small ; ligules 

 prominent and jagged ; panicle spreading, especially when 

 in fruit, at first erect, then drooping, many-flowered ; rachis 

 rough, branches whorled, spreading, rough ; spikelets linear- 

 lanceolate, acute, containing seven florets, remarkable for a 

 glossy appearance which none other of the family has, fre- 

 quently tinged with reddish-brown ; empty glumes very 

 unequal, acute, ribbed, membranaceous at the edge ; lower 

 glume five-ribbed, upper three-ribbed, the larger slightly 

 awned sometimes ; flowering glumes short, oblong, turgid, 

 bifid at the summit, awned ; awns slender, about the length 

 of the glumes, seven-ribbed, glossy at the margin; paleae 

 thin, white, membranaceous, smaller than the flowering 

 glume. 



This species is much less striking in appearance than 

 the Barren Brome or the Hairy Brome, the spikelets 



are fewer and shorter, and 

 of a broader and fuller shape, 

 the branches are shorter and 

 more erect, and the panicle 

 altogether more compact. 

 Dr. Parnell gives, as a dis- 

 tinctive feature, the length 

 of the larger outer glume 

 being just half that of the 

 spikelet, but surely the spike- 

 lets on his specimens must 

 have been unusually short, 

 or the outer glumes unusu- 

 ally long. 



The Field Brome is an abundant grass, found fre- 

 quently in cornfields in England but not at all in Scot- 

 land or Ireland. It is a native of colder countries, as 

 Lapland, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, etc. 



