125 



Found by Mr. Gibson near Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, and, if the 

 aspirings of later collectors may be trusted, occasionally occurring 

 among corn as an accidental intruder elsewhere. No figure of this 

 grass is given, because I do not believe in its being other than a very 

 slightly varied form of Bromus arvemis, although placed in a separate 

 sub-section. An impartial observer could scarcely arrive at any other 

 conclusion, unless prepared to admit that the development of ten or 

 twelve flowers in a spikelet, instead of only six or eight, is a distinction 

 too important to be slighted ; yet on this circumstance the difference of 

 habit between the two seems alone dependent. It is true we have, in 

 addition to this feature of B. patulm, comparatively short anthers and 

 nine veins visible in the outer palea, instead of seven only ; that is, 

 there is a vein on each side in the one where the space only for a vein 

 exists in the other. If the anthers of B. arvensis are not always four 

 times as long as broad, and the outer palea of the lowermost flower of 

 one of its spikelets is occasionally nine- veined, while those of the others 

 are seven-veined, it is to be feared that the value of such imporiam,t 

 distinguishing characters is somewhat weakened. 



Bromus squarrosus. Corn Brome Grass. Plate CVIII. 



Panicle drooping, simple. Spikelets few, ovate-oblong or lanceolate, 

 compressed. Flowers nearly smooth, imbricated, compressed. Palese 

 about the length of the ultimately divaricated awns ; with three promi- 

 nent veins on each side towards the margin. Leaves hairy or downy. 



Bromus squarrosus, Linnmus. . E. B. 1885 ; ed. 2, 155. Pamell. 

 Hooker and Amott. Serrafalcus squarrosus, Bahington. 



Occasionally met with in corn-fields, and in the southern counties of 

 England, perhaps, not very unfreqiiently. Like many other plants grow- 

 ing in similar situations, it cannot be regarded indigenous, but as an 

 introduction among seed-corn from southern Europe, in many parts of 

 which it is common in arable and waste land. Stems smooth, a foot to 

 a foot and a half in height. Leaves rather narrow, varying in cha- 

 racter of their pubescence from harsh hairiness to soft down. Inflo- 

 rescence raceme-like and one-sided; the peduncles being almost 

 universally solitary in British specimens. Spikelets more or less 

 erect before flowering, but drooping afterwards; usually very few, 

 oblong-lanceolate, or approaching to ovate, and sub-compressed, ten- 

 or twelve-flowered, nearly smooth. Outer palea more or less distinctly 

 nine-veined, the three veins on each side next the margin usually very 

 prominent. Awn rough, about the length of the palea, straight at first, 

 but afterwards bending outwards, and becoming curved and wavy. 



Annual. Flowers in June and July. 



At first sight this has much the aspect of being a distinct species, 

 but my opportunities for examination have been few, and I have never 

 had it under cultivation ; circumstances unfavourable to forming any 

 decided opinion, especially when associated with the uncertain cha- 

 racters of others, belonging to this ill-assorted genus. 



