PLATE 461. 
Bromus unioloides, H.B.K. (F1 Cap., Vol. VII., p 7.'U). 
Nat. Order Graniiiiere. 
Annual. — Cctlms fascicled, erect orsuberect, slender to stout, 1 to 2 feet long, 
glabrous, smooth, 2-3-noded, uppermost internodes long exserted ; loirer sheatlis 
thin, pallid, finely tomentose to spreadingly villous, vjqier green, prominently 
striate, glabrescent or glabrous and smooth ; ligules ovate, obtuse, 1 to 2 lines 
long. Blades linear, tapering to an acute point, 3 to 8 inches by L to 4 lines, flat, 
more or less flaccid, scaberulous or scabrid on both sides and along the margins, 
glabrous or softly hairy to villous. 
Panicle narrow, usually nodding, scantily divided or reduced to a raceme, 
fi^om a few inches to almost 1 foot long ; axis terete, striate, smooth below, angular 
and scaberulous above ; lower branches remote, 2-3-nate, 2 to 4- (rarely 5) 
spiculate, or all 1-spiculate, filiform, angular, scabrid, longest 2 to 3 inches long; 
pedicels very unequal, lateral usually extremely short. 
Spikelets erect or suberect, 8 to 15 lines long, lanceolate-oblong to oblong, 
strongly compressed, light green to glaucous, 4 to 10-flowered; rhachilla very 
fragile ; joints stout, up to 1^ line long, scaberulous on the outer side. Florets 
permanently closed, cleistogamous. 
Glumes lanceolate, acute or acuminate, firm except at tlie narrow white 
hyaline margins, glabrous, smooth except on the scaberulous keels, hnver 4^ to o|- 
lines long, 5 to 7-nerved, upper 5^-8 lines long, 7-9-nerved, nerves prominent. 
Valves lanceolate in profile, usually very minutely 2-toothed, mucronate or sliortly 
awned, C to 8 lines long, acutely keeled, herbaceous-chartaceous, green, whitish 
below, scabrid, about 13-nerved, margins straight to about | their length from the 
base, then hyaline, white, nerves prominent. Pales 3 to 5^ lines long, folded 
between the crested rigidly ciliolate keels ; filaments short, extremely delicate, 
clavate-tipped ; anthers ellipsoid, usually about \ line long, pei^manently enclosed 
in the floret ; ovary top with a large 3-lobed villous appendage ; stigmas short, 
sessile, slender, loosely plumose ; grain strongly compressed, linear-oblong, deeply 
grooved in front, tightly adhering to the valve and pale. 
HSibitSLt : Natal. Hermansberg Station, 3000 feet alt., Buchandn 235. 
Probably a native of South America, often grown for fodder. 
Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glurue ; 3, "valye in profile ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens and 
lodicules ; 6, grain, All enlarged. 
