610 GRAMiNEiE. • [Bromus- 



equidistant ribs, leaves and sheaths pubescent."— i?r. Fl. p. 547. 

 E.B. t. 1030. Host. Gram. Aust. i. 13, t. 16. 



In waste places, by waysides and the borders of fields ; plenlifuUy. Fl. June. 



4. B. ereciMS, Huds. Upright Perennial Brome-grass. "Pani- 

 cle simple erect, spikelets linear-lanceolate, florets subcylindrical 

 remote about twice as long as the straight awn diverging in flower 

 afterwards erect, outer glumella obscurely V-nerved, that of the 

 lowermost floret one-third longer than the smaller glume, sheaths 

 somewhat hairy the hairs pointing upwards, root-leaves very nar- 

 row ciliated."— J5r. Fl. p. 546. E. B. t. 471. Bertol. Fl. Ital. i. 

 (optim. et operosa descript.) B. agrestis. All. : Host. Gram. Aust. 

 i. p. 9, t. 10 (bona). 



Til dry open pastures and by roadsides ; rare. Fl. June, July. 2^. 



E. Med. — In great plenty on each side of the path across the fields from Luc- 

 combe to Bonchurch, along the steep ascent by the edge of the precipice over- 

 looking Rose cliff and the entrance to East end. In vast profusion on the sloping 

 sides of the down above the road between Luccombe and Bonchurch, here and 

 there covering the ground to the exclusion of every other grass, at an elevation of 

 perhaps 300 feet above the sea, 1844. Luccombe, D. Turner, Esq., B. T. W. 



A handsome grass. Root perennial, thick and somewhat creeping, with copious 

 long, branching, slender fibres. Culms several, erect, round, smooth, striated, 

 about 2 feet or more high. Leaves numerous, the radical ones and those of the 

 barren shoots remarkably narrow or linear, more or less fringed on their edges and 

 backs with soft, white, spreading hairs ; those on the stem broader and shorter, 

 with long, hairy, ribbed sheaths. Ligule extremely short, truncate and torn. 

 Panicle of several distant sets of half-whorled, simple or slightly compound, 

 roughish, nearly erect branches; most resembling that of B. diandrus, but less 

 spreading. Spikelets linear-lanceolate, much compressed, from 4- to 6- or 8. 

 flowered (sometimes 12-flowered, Bertol), mostly 5- in my specimens; florets 

 remote, linear, greenish or purplish, smooth, the uppermost often imperfect. 

 Glumes mere or less unequal,* linear-acute, membranous ; inner, upper and larger 

 one 3-ribbed ; outer and smaller mostly single-nerved, and terminating in a short 

 awn ; both glabrous and devoid^f all roughness, except in a slight degree at the 

 back near their joints, their edges oftem much jagged or torn. Pale(E linear-lan- 

 ceolate, unequal, very acute; the outer and larger 5-ribbed (the two intermediate 

 ribs shorter and less distinct), ending in a straight avm scarcely half its own length, 

 arising from a little below its slightly bifid apex, and which is roughish chiefly on 

 its lower half, where the keel of the valve itself is slightly scabrous; inner and 

 upper palea flat, diaphanous, with a green rough marginal rib on each side, and 

 sharply inflexed edges. Stamens 3 ; anthers large, dark red. Stigmas densely 

 plumose. Ovarium bristly on its upper part. Seed oblong, compressed, strongly 

 grooved down the middle, only slightly cohering to the paleae, and falling out 

 from the florets when ripe, at which period the panicle is still erect. 



5. B. mollis, L. Downy Brome-grass. " ' Panicle close ovate 

 erect in fruit slightly branched, simple peduncles shorter than the 

 crowded ovate somewhat compressed pubescent spikelets, flowers 

 closely imbricated, awn straight about as long as the florets, 

 sheaths of the leaves pubescent or hairy.' H. Watson in Hook. 



* The proportion the glumes bear to each other in this species is very variable ; 

 sometimes they are nearly equal, and both distinctly 3-ribbed. 



