132 
ENGLISH BOTANY. 
SPECIES II.-BRIZA MINOR- Linn. 
Plate MDCCLXXV. 
neich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. I. Tab. CLXV. Figs. 428 and 430. 
inilot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. ^o. 1379. 
Annual. Without a rootstock. Flowering stems several or nu- 
merous, appearing in succession, simple or branched from the lower 
knots, without radical leaves. Leaves flaccid, very broadly linear, 
tapering towards both ends, flat, with rather numerous widely 
placed ribs, pale yellowish-green, slightly glaucous ; uppermost stem- 
leaf smaller than the others, but in other respects similar to them ; 
sheaths nearly smooth, the uppei-most one considerably inflated and 
longer than its leaf, but rarely so much as twice as long ; ligule 
very prominent, much longer than broad, oblong-lanceolate, acute or 
subacute, laciniate. Panicle erect, pyramidal- subspherical, lax, open. 
Panicle -branches in pairs, spreading, twice or thrice or four times 
trichotomous, scabrous. Spikelets slightly drooping, ovate-deltoid or 
ovate-triangular, 5- to 9-flowered, but generally 7- or 8-flowered. 
Glumes broadly oval-obovate, concave and almost saccate towards the 
apex, as long as or longer than and as broad as the lower pales of 
the florets contiguous to them, green, rarely purplish, with very 
broad white scarious margins. Lower pale suborbicular, concave, 
saccate towards the apex, greatly indurated, shining, and cup-shaped 
in fruit, green, with very broad white scarious margins. Anthers 
purple, included or nearly so. 
In drj' cultivated fields, generally among corn, rare and very local. 
Confined to the south-west of England, from Cornwall and Devon, or 
perhaps Somerset, to Hants, near Southampton and Ryde. Very rare 
in Ireland, where it occurs in fields at Black Rock, near Cork. Fre- 
quent in Jersey and Guernsey. 
England. Ireland. Annual. Summer. 
Steins 0 inches to 2 feet high, thicker but not so vnry as those of 
r.. media. Leaves 2 to 6 inches long by i to | inch broad. Panicle 
■1 to () inches long. Spikelets J- to inch long. Florets -^V inch long. 
Readily knouTi from B. media by its tufted flowering stems, some- 
rimes producing short branches terminating m panicles from the 
lower knots; by its broader, more flaccid, and yellow-green tender 
Iraves, the uppermost one not much smaller than the others, not 
iiooflal and not much shorter than its sheath; by its greatly decom- 
pound [.aiiicle, and by its smaller and much more numerous and less 
distant spikelets, wliicli have both the glumes and the pales broader 
and much more concave. 
