169 
to 18 inches long, | to 1-j- inches long, often slightly tinged with 
reddish, florets \ to inch long, exchisive of the awn. 
Very similar to B. eu-raceinosus, but with the stem more slender, 
and the panicle and spikelets usually larger and more or less drooping, 
in consequence of their weight. Spikelets more pointed, and dimmer 
in colour, often with a faint tinge of reddish brown ; the margins of 
the pales with an obtuse antrle. so that in profde they are lialf-obovate, 
while in B. eu-raceniosus they are half-oval. The margin:, of the 
pales are more involute in fruit in B. comnmtatus than in B. eu- 
raceniosus, but much less so than in B. secalinus. 
Confused Brome- Grass. 
French, Semifrlcus cmfondu. German, Tmnhr,,fonnhjc Trcspe. 
SPECIES IX.— B ROM US MOLLIS. Lmn. 
Plates MDCCCrV. MDCCCV. 
J?c^•/^ Ic. Fl. Genu, ct ITelv. Vol. I. Tab. CXLIII. Figs. 3 to and 316. 
Billof, ri. Gall, ct GiTin. Exslcc. No. 1(.>;»L 
Serrafalcn.s mollis, I'nrl. FI. Ital. V^ol. I. p. 395. Bah. ^fan. Brit. "Bot. ed. vl. p. 422. 
Biennial or annual. Stem erect or ascending or decumbent, finely 
pubescent or pul)erulent, more pubescent on the knots. Leaves 
pubescent, gro\ isli-green ; slu^aths split at the apex only, derisely 
])ubescent with long or short reflexed hairs. Panicle erect in ll.nver 
and fruit, >ini})le or slightly branched, rather dense or den-<e. "ligi^'iy 
open in flower, contracted in fruit. Rachis usually with ap'proximare 
nodes. Panicle branches 1 to 5 at tlie lower nodes of the rachis 
unequal, isomctimes all reduced to ])e(iicels, but more commonly the 
longer ones branched, and bearing from 2 to 4 s{>ikelets, iiiihranched 
and bare of s[)ikelets for half their length, not more than the length 
of two internodes of the rachis, the shortest of the lower ones and 
all those in the upper part of the panicle, or all of them reduced to 
})edicels, p^ubescent. Pedicels mostly shorter than their spikelets, tlie 
npj er ones ami those of the florets on the branches very short or 
almost obsolete. Spikelets erect in flower and fruit, at first oval- 
lanceolate and acute, ultimately oval and obtuse or subobtuse, 4- to 
15-flowered. greyish-green, (ilunie-: unequal, the inner or larger one 
extending haif wav to the apex of the filth, or even of the eighth, floret. 
Florets very closely imbricated in tl.>wc r and fruit. Lower pale with a 
prominent obtuse ingle on the margin:,, half way between the middle 
and the apex on each side, 5-ribbed, notched at the apex, pul)oscent 
or subglabrous, or rarely wholly glabrous, with broad pale scarious 
margins. Awn from the bottom of the notch of the pale, nearly 
