Tin: (Jhassks of Tiinnksski:. 117 



lenj^^th of tlie approximate floral glumes; flowering glumes two to 

 two and one-half lines long, rigid, ovate-oblong, rounded on the 

 back, obtuse, obscurely nerved. Palea broad, strongly two-keeled, 

 about as long as the glumes, drain obovate, pubescent at the 

 apex. 



Treated by some authors as merely a variety of Festuca nutans, 

 from which it is distinguished by its coarser and usually taller 

 culms, broader and almost turgid spikelets, which are more crowded 

 at the ends of the panicle-branches. 



7. Festuca nutans Willd. Nodding Fescue. 

 Plate XLTT. Fiprure Ififi. 



An erect perennial with simple smooth stems two to three feet 

 high. vSheaths smooth or sometimes pilose, striate; ligule short 

 and irregularly dentate; leaf-blade linear-lanceolate, six to twelve 

 inches long, strongly nerved, somewhat scabrous, dark green. 

 Panicle slender, diffuse, at length nodding, the long, scabrous 

 branches usually in pairs and naked below. vSpikelets about three 

 lines long, ovate-lanceolate, two- to five-flowered; empty glumes 

 unequal, lanceolate, acuminate pointed, scabrous on the keel; flow- 

 ering glumes rigid or somewhat coriaceous, rounded on the back, 

 acute, smooth and apparently nerveless. 



Borders of thickets and moist w^oodlands, common. May — June. 

 Of little agricultural value. 



57. BROMUS Linn. 



Spikelets few- to many flowered, slightly or more rarely strongly 

 flattened laterally, in panicles, or rarely racemed; rachilla articu- 

 lated above the empty glumes and between the florets; florets her- 

 maphrodite or the uppermost imperfect. Empty glumes at the 

 base of the spikelet two, unequal, acute, or the second short- 

 avvned, one- to five-nerved, shorter than the flowering glumes. 

 Flowering glumes keeled or more often rounded on the back, five- 

 to nine-nerved, usually two-toothed at the apex, and awned from 

 the back just below the point or from between the teeth, some- 

 times awnless; awn straight or divergent. Palea a little shorter 

 than the glume, two-keeled. Stamens usually three. Stigmas 

 plumose, sessile, springing from below the hairy cushion-like apex 

 of the ovary. Grain furrowed and grown to the palea. 



Annual or perennial grasses, with flat leaves and rather large, 

 erect or pendulous spikelets. 



Species about forty, most abundant in the north temperate 

 zone. There are about twenty-five species in the United States, 

 of which several are introduced. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



I. Spikelets strongly flattened; glumes many-nerved and all 

 sharply keeled; flowering glumes entire, acute, awnless 

 or very short-awned 7. B. unioloides. 



I. Spikelets not strongly flattened, the glumes few-nerved, 

 rounded on the back, at least below, sometimes narrow 

 and keeled and then long-awned 2 



