Brachypodium.] LXXXIX. GRAMINE^. 531 



Festuca, and Bromus, with one or other of which genera they have 

 often been united. 



Awns as long as or longer than the flowering glumes. Spikelets 



usually drooping 1. B. sylvaticum. 



Awns shorter than the flowering glumes. Spikelets erect or 



nearly so 2. B. pinnatum. 



1. B. sylvaticum, Beauv. (fig. 1217). Slender F, — A rather slender, 

 erect Grass, 2 to 3 feet high, with a perennial tuft, and slightly creep- 

 ing rootstock. Leaves flat, and rather long. Spikelets usually 6 or 7 

 in a loose spike, more or less drooping, or rarely erect, each one attain- 

 ing an inch or even more in length, nearly cylindrical when young, and 

 flattened when in fruit, containing from 8 to twice that number of 

 flowers. Glumes glabrous or pubescent, the outer ones pointed, the 

 flowering ones ending in an awn usually as long as or longer than the 

 glume itself. Palea fringed with a few hairs on the edges. 



In woods, hedges, and thickets, throughout Europe, and central and 

 Russian Asia, except the extreme north, also found in the Western 

 Himalaya. Common in Britain. Fl. summer. 



2. B. pinnaturn, Linn. (fig. 1218). Heath F. — Perhaps a mere variety 

 of B. sylvaticum growing in more open situations. The rootstock is 

 more creeping, the spikelets more erect, the flowering glumes rather 

 smaller, and more open, and the awn is very much shorter. 



In pastures and stony wastes, with nearly the same geographical 

 range as B. sylvaticum, but not extending so far north, nor into the 

 Himalaya, and more common in southern and eastern Europe. In 

 Britain, scattered over the eastern and central counties of England, 

 but unknown in Scotland and Ireland. FL summer. 



XXX. BROMUS. BROME. 



Spikelets several-flowered, rather large, erect or drooping, in a 

 branched, loose, or compact panicle. Outer glumes unequal, usually 

 keeled and awnless. Flowering glumes longer, rounded on the back, 

 scarious at the edges, with an awn inserted just below the notched or 

 cleft summit. Palea ciliate on the nerves. Ovary usually hairy, the 

 style inserted on one side of the summit. 



A considerable genus, widely spread over the northern hemisphere, 

 chiefly in the Old World, with a few American or southern species. It 

 is also a natural one if made to include B. giganteus, referred by some 

 to Festuca on account of the glabrous ovary and more central style. Br- 

 others the species here included are distributed into two, three, or four 

 distinct genera. 



Flowering glumes oblong, turgid. Outer ones distinctly nerved 6. B. arvensis. 

 Flowering glumes narrow-lanceolate. Outer ones obscurely 

 nerved. 

 Flowering glumes about 3 lines long. Ovary glabrous . . 7. B. giganteus. 

 Flowering glumes 5 lines long or more. Ovary hairy. 

 Awns shorter or not longer than the glumes. Leaf-sheaths 

 with long hairs. 



Panicle loose and drooping 2. B. aspcr. 



Panicle compact and erect 1. B. erectus. 



Awns longer than the glumes. Leaves softly downy or 

 glabrous. 



