613 GEAMiNEiE. [Aveua. 



with 8 or 10 glabrous florets (in the specimens before itie they are perfectly smooth 

 under a good lens). Glumes unequal, outer or smaller with 2, inner and larger 

 with 4 ribs on each side, acute, with a roui;h keel and white membranous edges. 

 Outer palea ovate, obtuse, deeply notched at the apex, with 4 strong green ribs on 

 each side besides the central one; a pair of these ribs run close together near the 

 inflexed membranous margins of the valve, which slopes off suddenly at an angle 

 to the apex, below which is inserted the rough awn, about equal in length to the 

 valve, purplish in its lower, pale in its upper, half; inner palea emarginate, deli- 

 cately membranous, edged with green and pectinated with stout, distant, bristly 

 ciliae pointing upwards. Anthers dark purple. Ovarium oblong, much com- 

 pressed. Styles extremely short ; stigmas feathery, deflexed. 



T find a grass very similar, if not the same, on hedgebanks near Carpenters, 

 and elsewhere about Hyde, as well as amongst corn, which I regard merely as a 

 larger more diffuse form of B. racemosus, the spikelets drooping when in seed from 

 the length and weakness of the peduncles. Whoever will be at the trouble of 

 comparing the discordant accounts given by authors of B. arvensis will perhaps 

 concur with myself in opinion that B. arvensis, B. racemosus, B. secalinus, B. velu- 

 tinus, not to mention the present still more obscure and doubtful species, S. com- 

 mutalus, B. multi/lorus, &c,, are in all probability so many forms of B. mollis. 



The B. arvensis of Fl. Cestrica is only this species, as I learn by authentic spe- 

 cimens from West Chester County in my possession. 



8. B. secalinus, L. Rye Brome- grass. " ' Panicle loose droop- 

 ing in fruit, lower peduncles slightly branched, simple peduncles 

 about equalling the oblong compressed glabrous spikelets, florets 

 at first imbricated afterwards distinct cylindrical, the incurved 

 edges of the glumeUas not overlapping those of the floret above 

 them, awn straight about as long as the floret, leaves hairy but 

 the sheaths nearly glabrous.' Watson in Hook. Land. Journ. of 

 Bat. i. p. 8&."—Br. Fl. p. 548. Host. Gram. Aust. i. 10, t. 12. 

 In cornfields and waste places. Fl. June, July. (or $ , Hook) 

 E Med. — At Whitcombe, near Newport, where it abounded to an injurious 

 degree some years ago, having been inlroducetl, it is supposed, in seed-wheat 

 from Suffolk. Amongst vetches at Playstreei farm, by Ryde, Mr. W. Jolliffe, 

 1841! At Redhill, abundant, Mr. Wm. Hughes ! On the sea-coast at Eyde, 

 With. (7th ed.) 



XXVII. AvENA, Linn. Oat. 



" Panicle lax. Spikelets laterally compressed, with 2 or more 

 perfect florets and sometimes 1 or more rudimentary neuter 

 one. Glumes 2, membranaceous, 3- or many-nerved. GlumeUas 

 2, lanceolate, hairy at the base, herbaceous, at length cartilaginous 

 and firmly enclosing the caryopsis ; outer one with a long twisted 

 geniculate dorsal awn, with two points or bristles at the summit." 

 —Br. Fl. 



* Smaller glume 5 — 7 nerved, larger one 5 — 11 nerved. Outer glumella 6 — 8 

 nerved. Spikelets ultimately drooping. Ovary hairy at the top. Annual 

 plants. 



1. A.fatua, L. Wild Oat or Haver.* " Panicle erect, spike- 

 lets drooping of about 3 scabrous much-awned florets smaller 



* Hafer in German. 



