| Bromus. | LXXXIX. GRAMINER. 53] 
4, B. arvensis, Linn. (fig. 1220). Meld Brome.—An erect annual or 
biennial, varying much in size, from 1 to 2 or 3 feet high, more or less 
softly downy, or sometimes quite glabrous. Panicle sometimes small, 
slender, elongated or compact, and nearly erect, but more frequently more 
or less drooping, yet never so large nor so loose as in B. asper and B. 
stertlis; and amidst all its variations, the species is always distinguished 
from the four preceding ones by its short, oblong, or ovoid, turgid flowering 
glumes, 3 to 4 lines long, and more closely packed, giving a broader and 
fuller shape to the spikelet. Awn slender, usually about the length of the 
glumes, straight or spreading wheh dry, but not in so marked a manner as 
in the south European B. squarrosus, said to have appeared occasionally in 
our cornfields. 
In cultivated and waste places, meadows, and pastures, throughout 
Europe and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Abundant in Britain. 
1. the whole season, especially spring and early summer. Many of the 
forms assumed by this ubiquitous species, difficult as they are to distinguish, 
and passing gradually one into another, have been universally recog- 
nized as species, although with characters very differently marked out by 
different authors. The most prominent among the British ones are :— 
a, B. secalinus, Linn. A tall cornfield variety, with a loose, more or less 
drooping panicle, the flowers not so closely imbricated, becoming quite dis- 
tinct and spreading when in fruit, most of these differences arising from 
being cultivated with the corn. 
b. B. mollis, Linn. One of the commonest forms in open, waste places, 
with a more erect panicle, either short and compact, or long and slender, 
and the whole plant softly downy. 
c. B. racemosus, Linn. (commutatus, Schrad.). Like the last variety, 
but much more glabrous. 
d. B. multifiorus, Sm., includes either of the preceding varieties, when 
the flowers are more numerous than usual in the spikelet. 
7. B. giganteus, Linn. (fig. 1221). Tall Brome.—An erect, glabrous 
perennial, 3 or 4 feet high, with along, loose, more or less drooping panicle, 
much resembling B. asper, but known at once by the smaller spikelets and 
slender awns. ‘The spikelets, without the awns, are 7 or 8 lines long, and 
contain from 3 to 6 flowers. Outer glumes unequal, the lowest 1-nerved, 
the second 8-nerved. Flowering glumes lanceolate, almost nerveless, about 
3 lines long ; the fine awn fully twice that length, usually inserted a little 
below the tip, as in Bromus. Ovary glabrous, as in Mestuca, Festuca, 
gigantea, Vill. 
In hedges and woods, over the greater part of Europe and Russian Asia, 
except the extreme north. In Britain, not generally as commonas B. asper, 
and still less in Scotland. #7. summer. 
XXXI. FESTUCA. FESCUE. 
Spikelets several-flowered, usually numerous, in a compact or slightly 
spreading panicle (in one variety reduced to a simple spike). Outer glumes 
unequal, keeled. Flowering glumes lanceolate, convex on the back, pointed 
or tapering into an awn, scarcely scarious at the edges. Ovary glabrous, 
rarely downy, with the styles terminal. Grain usually adnate to the 
palea. : 
Mm 2 
