115 



exclusively in Europe and Asia. They are, for the most part, grasses 

 of a rough quality, disliked by cattle generally, and containing little 

 nutriment; hence, in an agricultural point of view, they may be 

 regarded as mere weeds, and, in the stiU too frequent promiscuous 

 collection of grass seed by the farmer, that from meadows in which any 

 of the species of Brome Grass are abundant should be systematically 

 avoided. Most of the plants, and especially those occupying fields and 

 open situations, are annuals ; and though, cut early in the season, 

 Bromus mollis and a few others yield a quantity of coarse hay, there is 

 no after math. 



The name is from the Greek bromos, a kind of oat ; from broma, 

 food, and is certainly misapplied to the genus before us, many of the 

 species of which are decidedly unwholesome. 



The ripe seed (fruit) is hairy at the apex, and coheres, in m:ost 

 instances, with the upper or inner palea. 



The genus Bromus of Linnaeus is divided by some modern botanists, 

 but as the differential characters appear insufficient for the establish- 

 ment of a new genus, it is here retained entire, so far as the name is 

 concerned. The two sections under which the British species are 

 arranged below, stiU correspond to the Bromm and Serrafalcus of 

 Mr. Babington's Manual. 



* Lower glume single-veined, upper one three- to five- veined. Flowers 

 lanceolate, compressed. 



Bromus. 



Bkomus erbotus. Upright Brome Grass. Plate XCVII. 



Panicle erect ; its branches nearly simple. Spikelets linear-lanoeo- 

 late, erect. Flowers remote, sub-cylindrical, longer than the straight 

 awn. Lower palea obscurely seven-veined. Eadioal leaves convolute, 

 ciliated, with white scattered hairs pointing upward. 



Bromus erectus, Hudson. E. B. 471 ; ed. 2. 157. Generally adopted. 



This may be regarded as a very local species, being ahnost exclu- 

 sively confined to dry sandy soil, overlying chalk, hence not unfre- 

 quent in the southern and eastern counties of England, while it is of 

 rare" occurrence in other parts of the kingdom. It is met with in 

 siinilar localities in central and southern Europe, extendmg mto the 

 lower parts of Norway and Sweden. A strong growmg plant, slightly 

 creeping at the root, and sending up erect, smooth, and sometmies 

 almost polished stems, two or three feet high. The root leaves are 

 narrower than in most other species of this genus, and appear more 

 slender than they reaUy are from being roUed in on the margms ; they 

 are rough to the touch, especially towards the apex, and always more 

 or less copiously sprinkled with white scattered hairs that pomt upwards. 

 The stem leaves are broader and flat, and have a short, obtuse ligule, 

 torn or broken at the upper part. Inflorescence usually simply pamcled, 

 three to six inches long, nearly erect, and rather compact, bpikelets 



z 



