156 



Fig. 125. Bromus secalinus L. CHESS OR CHEAT.— a, A 7-flowered spike- 

 let. Other species of the genus Bromus are illustrated by Figs. 290 to 293 in 

 Bui. 7, and 582 to 586, in Bui. 17. 



125. BROMUS Linn. Sp. PL 1 : 76. 1753. Spikelets few- to many-flowered, 

 slightly or more rarely strongly flattened laterally in panicles, or rarely 

 racemed; rachilla articulated above the empty glumes and between the florets, 

 florets hermaphrodite or the uppermost imperfect; empty glumes at the base of 

 the spikelet 2, unequal, acute, or the 2d short-awned, 1- to 5-nerved, shorter 

 than the flowering glumes; flowering glumes keeled or more often rounded on 

 the back, 5- to 9-nerved, usually 2-toothed at the apex, and awned from the 

 back just below the point or from between the teeth, sometimes awnless; awn 

 straight or divergent. Palea a little shorter than the glume, 2-keeled. Sta- 

 mens, usually 3. Stigmas plumose, sessile, springing from below the hairy 

 cushion-like apex of the ovary. Grain furrowed and grown to the palea. 

 Annual or perennial grasses with flat leaves and rather large erect or pendulous 

 spikelets. 



Species about 100, most abundant in the north temperate zone. There are 

 about 35 species in the United States, including several introduced species. 



