Bromus.] gramine^. 609 



nodding at the top, of several pairs of rather unequal, alternate, distant, long- 

 spreading, rough, 3-edged branches, compound and drooping at their extremities, 

 springing from the flattened side of the semiterete rachis, which is scabrous at the 

 angles, becoming more so between each successive pair of branches, which last 

 diminish in length as they ascend, and at last are reduced to alternate simple 

 pedicels, bearing a solitary spikelet. Spikelets usually 5 — 7 flowered, in the var. 

 /3. only 3-flowered, slender and lanceolate, compressed, closely applied in general 

 to the flat face of the very scabrous branches, about ^ an inch in length without 

 the awns. Glumes very unequal and acutely acuminate, lanceolate, with white, 

 scariose, mostly torn margins, smooth and glabrous ; lower and outer glume sin- 

 gle-ribbed, with a green back ; inner and upper much longer, wider, 3-ribbed, 

 the lateral ribs much shorter than the middle one. Palece nearly equal in length. 

 A less tall but more robust grass than the following, and intermediate between 

 Bromus and Festuca, making an approach also to Brachypodium, but referred 

 with the greatest propriety to the first of these genera, agreeing as it does with 

 that, and especially B. asper, in habit and general appearance. It is easily dis- 

 tinguished from that species by the nearly erect or slightly nodding panicle, lean- 

 ing rather to one side, not drooping in all directions as in that of S. asper; by 

 the much longer almost feathery awns, which are variously waved and contorted, 

 not straight and bristly. The spikelets, too, are much smaller, shorter, and of a 

 brighter green, as is the whole plant, which is, moreover, remarkably smooth, ex- 

 cepting the branches of the panicle, but the roughness of these is much less than 

 in B. asper. The joints of the culm are stained with dark purple, as are also the 

 very remarkably amplexicaul bases of the much broader stem-leaves and the very 

 short entire stipule, all of which in B. asper are uncoloured. The stigmas in the 

 present species are nearly simple, in that densely feathery. The pale appearance 

 of the midrib of the leaf cannot be depended upon as constant ; the absence of the 

 long hairs so conspicuous on the sheaths is an all-sufiicient distinction. From 

 Brachypodium sylvaticum the stalked florets will make its discrimination easy. 

 The fringe at the edges of the inner valve of the corolla is certainly trifling com- 

 pared with that in others of the genus ; still the hairs are bristly, differing in size 

 and number only from such as are found in true species of Bromus. 



2. 'Q. asper, L. Hairy Wood Brome -grass. "Panicle slightly 

 branched drooping, spikelets linear-lanceolate, florets remote sub- 

 cylindrical hairy about twice as long as the straight awn diverg- 

 ing in flower afterwards erect, outer glumella 5 — 7 ribbed, that of 

 the lowermost floret twice as long as the smaller glume, sheaths 

 with hairs pointing downwards, leaves uniform the lower ones 

 hairy."— ^r. Fl. p. 547. E. B. t. 1172. Fl. Dan. viii. t. 1382. 

 Host. Gram. Aust. i. 6, t. 7. 



In moist woods and thickets ; abundantly, i^/. July, August. Ti-. 



E. Med. — In Quarr copse, Apley wood, St. John's wood, and most other woods 

 about Ryde. 



W. Med. — Abundant in woods about Yarmouth. 



The tallest though not the stoutest of our Brome-grasses, often upwards of 6 

 feet high, and very conspicuous from its large panicle elegantly drooping in all 

 directions. 



The margin of the inner or larger calyx-glume is sometimes perfectly glabrous, 

 as I find it in my specimens. Smith's description of this grass is excellent. 



3. B. sterilis, L. Barren Brome-grass. "Panicle drooping 

 slightly branched, spikelets linear-lanceolate, florets remote sub- 

 cylindrical scabrous shorter than the straight awn diverging 

 during and after flowering, outer glumella with 7 distinct 



4i 



