386 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



st>8m to be no good characters to distinguish this from F. praten'sis, 

 Huds. We have a few native species of Festuca, — but they are of little 

 or no value in Agriculture — and some of them are indicative of a poor 

 soil. 



15. BRO'MUS, L. Brome Grass. 



[Greek, Broma, food ; Bromos was un ancient name for oats.] 



»5/?zA'e/e?.s 5 -many-flowered in a loose panicle. Glumes unequal, mem- 

 branaceous ; the upper 3 - 9-nerved, the lower 1 - 5-nerved. Lower palea 

 convex on the back, 5 - 9-nerved, awned from below the mostly 2-c]eft 

 apex. Upper palea pectinate-ciliate on the two keels, finally adhering 

 to the groove of the linear-oblong grain. Stamens 3. Coarse grasses 

 with large spikelets which are finally nodding. 



1. B. secali'nus, L. Panicle spreading, even in fruit ; 

 spikelets ovate-oblong, 8- 10-flowered ; florets pubescent ; 

 awn short, sometimes very short or none. 



Rye Bromus. Cheat. Chess. Brome Grass. 



Fr. Brome Seigle. Germ. Roggen-Trespe. Span. Bromo. 



Root annual. Culm 3-4 feet high, smooth. Leaves 6-12 inches 

 long, lance-linear, nerved, scabrous and pilose on the upper surface ; 

 sheaths nerved, smooth ; ligule oblong, retuse, laciniate-dentate. Pan- 

 icle 4-6 or 8 inches long, the branches semi-verticillate, nearly simple, 

 scabrous and pubescent. Fiords a httle remote at base, so as to ap- 

 pear distinct on the flexuose rachis. Lower glume shorter, 5-nerved, 

 sometimes mucronate, — the uppei- one 7-nerved, obtuse or emarginatc. 

 Lower palea obscurely 7-nerved, slightly pubescent near the apex, 

 — the aim mostly shorter than the floret, flexuose (sometimes want- 

 ing, or a mere rudiment) ; upper palea linear, awnless, pectinate-ciliate on the keel 

 at each border, the scarious margins being folded in. Caryopsis closely embraced by the 

 lower palea, grooved on the sides with the upper palea doubled in the groove, and ad- 

 herent. 



Cultivated grounds, chiefly among wheat and rye : introduced. Native of Europe. Fl. 

 June. Fr. July. 



Ohs. This foreigner is a well-known pest among our crops of Wheat 

 and Rye, — and occasionally appears in the same fields, for a year or two, 

 after the grain crop ; but being an annual, it is soon choked out by the 

 perennial grasses. — and the fallen seeds remain, like myriads of others, 

 until the ground is again broken up, or put in a favorable state for 

 their developement. The best preventive of this and all similar evils, in 

 the grain-field, is to sow none but good clean seed. 



Among the curious vulgar errors which yet infest the minds of credu- 

 lous and careless observers of natural phenomena, may be mentioned the 

 firm belief of many of our farmers (some of them, too, good practical 

 farmers) , that this troublesome grass is nothing more than an accidental 

 variety, or casual form, of degenerate Wheat, — produced by some un- 

 toward condition of the soil, or unpropitious season, or some organic 



Fig. 263. A spikelet of Chess or Cheat (Bromus s:caliuus). 



