166 



Not unfrequent in rather moist woods and damp shady places under 

 hedges, throughout the kingdom. Stems one or two feet high, seldom 

 more than two or three from the same root, often solitary, erect, slender. 

 Leaves flaccid, more or less hairy above, flat, rather broad, so as to be 

 linear-lanceolate. Ligule obtuse. Inflorescence rather nodding than 

 drooping ; the rachis smooth, zig-zag, but not toothed nor indented. 

 Spikelets alternate, distantly inserted, an inch or more in length, ac- 

 cording to the flowers varying in number from eight to fifteen or sixteen, 

 rather inclining to one side, cylindrical at first, but eventually becoming 

 more or less compressed. G-lumes acutely lanceolate, seven-veined, 

 more or less hairy. Outer palea, linear-lanceolate, usually hairy, 

 seven-veined, with a long straight rough awn extending from the 

 summit ; inner palea rather shorter than the outer, very obtuse, with 

 two green nearly marginal veins strongly fringed or ciliated above the 

 middle. 



Perennial. Flowers in July. 



BBACHYPODinM piNNATHM. Heath False Brome Grass. Plate 

 CXXXIV. 



Inflorescence erect. Spikelets solitary, alternate, distichous, nearly 

 cylindrical. Awns of the upper flowers shorter than their paleas. 

 Leaves flat, linear-lanceolate, rigid. Koot creeping. 



Brachypodium pinnatum, Beauvois. E. B. ed. 2. 183. Most modern 

 botanists. Festuca pinnate, Hudson. Withering. Smith. Bromus 

 pinnatus, Linnceus. E. B. 730. Triticum pinnatum, Moench. 

 Pamell. 



OccassionaUy met with throughout England, and not uncommon on 

 open fields and heaths, especially over chalk and limestone. The root 

 is somewhat creeping, but scarcely to be regarded as even approaching 

 to stoloniferous. Stems more or less decumbent at the base, rather 

 slender, erect, and rigid. Leaves linear-acuminate, more or less hairy, 

 rigid. Ligule short, obtuse. Inflorescence erect, rigid; the rachis 

 rough. Spikelets long, linear, cylindrical, usually erect or less 

 divergent than those of B. sylvaticum, ten- to fifteen- or twenty-fiowered. 

 Glumes smooth, seven-veined, the middle vein occasionally prolonged 

 into a short awn. Outer palea rough, seven-veined, the middle vein 

 extending as a terminal rough awn seldom more than half the length of 

 the palea, and often very short ; inner palea very obtuse, with a green 

 intromarginal vein on each side, fringed or ciliated with white bristles 

 above the middle. 



Perennial. Flowers in June and July. 



The distinguishing features of this and the preceding are far from 



■ being decided, though botanists generally seem inclined to regard them 



as separate species. Cultivated in the same soil, and equally exposed, 



they appear to closely approximate each other in the course of a few 



