5 86 



GRAMINE^E 



43. Brachypodium (False Brome). — Perennial grasses with 

 long, many-flowered spikelets in a spike or raceme, with an un- 

 indented rachis ; glumes unequal ; flowering glume with a terminal 

 awn ; ovary hairy at the top. (Name from the Greek brachus, 

 short, podion, a foot-stalk, in allusion to the short stalks of the 

 spikelets.) 



1 . B. sylvdticum (Slender False Brome). — Root fibrous ; stem 

 usually solitary, erect, 1 — 3 feet high ; 

 leaves broad, flat, rather long, flaccid, hairy ; 

 spikelets 6 — 18, usually only 6 or 7, dis- 

 tichous, sub-sessile, adpressed, 1 — 2 in. 

 long, nearly cylindric when young, flattened 

 when in fruit, 8 — 10-flower^d, in a loose 

 spike, more or less drooping ; glumes 

 pointed ; flowering glume ending in an awn 

 as long as, or longer than, itself. — Woods 

 and hedges ; common. — Fl. June, July. 

 Perennial. 



2. B. pinndtum (Heath False Brome). — 

 Root-stock creeping ; stems several, erect, 

 1 — 3 feet high, smooth, glaucous ; leaves 

 narrow, involute, rigid, almost glabrous ; 

 spike erect, with smaller, green or purplish 

 spikelets curving away from the rachis ; awn 

 shorter than the flowering glume. — Dry 

 places on limestone ; not commom, absent 

 from Scotland and Ireland. — Fl. July, 

 August. Perennial. 



44. Lolium (Rye-grass). — Perennial 

 grasses with their spikelets solitary, sessile 

 in the notches of a simple rachis, forming 

 a spike, compressed, with their edges 

 towards the rachis, 3- or more-flowered. 

 (Name, a Classical Latin name.) 



1. L. peremte (Rye-grass, Way Bent). — 

 Stem ascending, 1 — 2 feet high, with leafy runners; spike 6 — 12 

 in. long ; spikelets not close together, 8- or more-flowered ; outer 

 glume strongly ribbed, not as long as the whole spikelet, varying 

 in shape ; flowering glume obtuse, pointed or awned. — Waste 

 places ; common. — Fl. May — July. Perennial. 



*L. itdlicum (Italian Rye-grass) is an annual or biennial variety, 

 with much longer spikelets and more flowers, known only in a 

 cultivated state. It is one of the most valuable of fodder grasses. 



achyp6dium sylvAticum 

 (Slender False Brome). 



