992 



THE GRASS FAMILY. 



Iii cultivated and waste places, meadows, and pastures, throughout 

 Europe and Eussian Asia, except the extreme north. Abundant in 

 Britain. Fl. 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 recognized as species, although with characters very diffe- 

 rently marked out by different authors. The most prominent among 

 the British ones are : — 



a. Eye-like field B. (B. secalinus, Eng. Bot, t. 1171.) A tall, corn- 

 field variety, with a loose, more or less drooping panicle, the flowers 

 not so closely imbricated, becoming quite distinct and spreading when 

 in fruit, most of these differences arising from being cultivated with 

 the corn. 



b. Soft field B. {B. mollis, Eng. Bot. t. 1078.) One of the com- 

 monest 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. Smooth Field B. (B. racemosus, Eng. Bot. 1. 1079.) Like the last 

 variety, but much more glabrous. 



d. Many -flowered field B. (B. multiflorus, Eng. Bot. t. 1884), in- 

 cludes either of the preceding varieties, when the flowers are more 

 numerous than usual in the spikelet. 



7. Tall Brome. Bromus giganteus, Linn. (Eig. 1206.) 

 (Festuca, Eng. Bot. t. 1820, and F. triflora, t. 1918.) 



An erect, glabrous perennial, 3 or 4 

 feet high, with a long, loose, more or 

 less drooping panicle, much resembling 

 the hairy B., but known at once by 

 the smaller spikelets and slender awns. 

 The spikelets, without the awns, 7 or 

 8 lines long, and contain from 3 to 6 

 flowers. Outer glumes unequal, the 

 lowest 1-nerved, the second 3-nerved. 

 Elowering glumes lanceolate, almost 

 nerveless, about 3 lines long ; the fine 

 awn fully twice that length, usually in- 

 serted a little below the tip, as in Brome. 

 Ovary glabrous, as in Fescue. 



In hedges and woods, over the greater 

 part of Europe and Eussian Asia, except 

 the extreme north. In Britain, not ge- 

 nerally so common as the hairy B., and 

 still less so in Scotland. Fl. summer. 

 Fig. 1206/ 



