118 



Bromus diandeus. Upright Annual Brome Grass. Plate C. 



Panicle erect; branches short, generally simple, rather spreading. 

 Spikelets lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, erect. Flowers remote, sub- 

 cylindrical, about the length of the awn. Lower palea seven- veined ; 

 the two outer veins on each side close together, and the intermediate 

 ones indistinct. Often diandrous. 



Bromus diandrus, Curtis. E. B. 1006 ; ed. 2. 160. G-eneraUy 

 adopted by modern British botanists. Bromus madritensis, Linnaeus. 

 Bentham. B. muralis, Hudson. 



A grass of occasional occurrence only in this country, and chiefly in 

 the southern counties of England. It seems to prefer dry sandy places, 

 and rocks and walls near the sea, especially about the borders of the 

 English Channel, though said to have been found northward in Durham, 

 about Edinburgh, and on the coast of Fifeshire. Although noticed by 

 Hudson, Withering, and other earlier English botanists, it cannot be 

 regarded as strictly indigenous, but rather as a natural introduction 

 from the south of Europe or the Atlantic Islands. It varies much in 

 size, according to situation, the smooth, erect stems rising from a few 

 inches to a foot or more in height. The leaves are linear, acute, and 

 more or less hairy or downy, and the hairs on the leaf- sheaths are 

 reflexed or pointing downwards. Panicle with simple branches or 

 raceme-like ; the branches erect and close, or but very slightly spread- 

 ing, and rarely as long as the spikelets they support. Glumes very 

 unequal, the upper and larger one three-veined. Spikelets eight- or 

 ten-flowered, spreading by the expansion of the flowers, so as to lose 

 their original lanceolate outline. Flowers rather distant on the rachis. 

 Outer palea scarcely shorter than its straight rough awn ; seven-veined, 

 the two outer veins on each side near to each other, the intermediate 

 one on either side the middle vein usually very faint and indistinct. 

 Inner palea scarcely shorter than the outer, its two green marginal 

 veins ciliated. The flowers have often a purplish tint. 



Annual. Flowers in June and July. 



The erect, close, shortly-branched panicle, comparitively short awn, 

 only equalling the palea in length, and the peculiar arrangement of the 

 veins of the outer palea, render the species very distinct from those 

 to which it is most nearly allied, especially B. sterilis. 



It has no claim to consideration as a pasture grass. 



Bromus rigidus, Roth; found in the Channel Islands, and, on at 

 least one occasion, near the Land's-end, Cornwall, resembles this in the 

 general character of the panicle, but has the upper part of the stem, 

 the pedicels, rachis, and glumes pubescent. 



Bromus tectorem, another continental Brome Grass, met with a few 

 years past growing near the new miU at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, is 

 referred to by the authors of the 'British Flora,' as "principally 

 distinguished from this by the unilateral drooping panicle, and by 

 having the outer palea much longer than the inner one." I have not 



