236 BRITISH GRASSES. 



ThejB. mollis flowers in June and ripens its seed in July. 



B. mollis, var. pratensis. Meadow Soft Brome-grass 

 is a less downy form of B. mollis, but cattle do not find 

 that that makes it more palatable to them, for they 

 reject both the normal form and the variety whenever 

 they can get any more juicy grasses. Neither of them 

 produce any great quantity of herbage. 



10. Bromus racemosus, Sir J. E. Smith. Smooth 

 Field Brome-grass. 



Boot annual, fibrous ; stems erect, from one to two feet 

 high, leafy, downy; joints rather downy; leaves linear- 

 lanceolate, flat, downy, pointed ; sheaths striated, the upper 

 smooth, the lower downy or hairy ; panicle nearly erect, 

 spreading, simple, rachis and branches rough ; spikelets 

 ovate, of about eight imbricated, depressed, ribbed, smooth 

 florets, of a light green colour ; outer glumes nearly equal, 

 outermost three-ribbed, inner seven-ribbed ; flowering glume 

 longer than the outer glumes, seven-ribbed, awned, bifid ; 

 awn nearly as long as the glume, rough, and slightly wavy ; 

 palesB oblong, narrow, ribbed at the margin, the ribs green 

 and fringed with white. 



This grass is accounted by Sir W. Hooker as a mere 

 variety of B. mollis. It is of more slender growth, and 

 not hairy, and these are the only differences which strike 

 the general observer. A more minute examination shows 

 the distinctions so carefully noted by Dr. Parnell, the 

 toothing on the midribs of the outer glumes, and the 

 position of the apex of the larger outer glume just half- 

 way between its own base and the summit of the third 

 floret on the same side. Besides this, the spikelets of B. 

 mollis are rough to the touch, and those of jB. racemosus 

 are smooth. 



