REPORT FOR 1 895. 
503 
Bromus interruptus^ Druce. This plant was first distributed through 
this Club in i8B8, to which I had sent it as a new variety of B. mollis^ 
under the name aggregaia, but Prof. Hackel, to whom a specimen had 
been sent, suggested the better name of interruptus, to which I readily 
acceded. He diagnosed it as follows : — “ B. mollis^ var. interruptus^ 
mihi (Hackel). Panicula brevis, interrupta, spiculis glomeratis, obovato- 
ellipticis, gluma sterili superiore dimidiam spiculam sequante vel 
superanti.” For the last seven years I have had the plant under my 
observation. I find it comes true from seed. It is by no means 
confined to the chalky field where I first found it, but it is found over 
a considerable area, not only on the chalk, but also on the green sand 
and coaralline oolite. Recently Mr. L. Lester, of S. John’s College, 
Oxford, directed my attention to some specimens which he had 
collected at Elsfield, near Oxford (and of which I believe members 
will also receive a supply), which had the inner pale split to the base. 
I had previously come to the conclusion that the plant was a distinct 
species, but I considered its claims to specific distinction would be 
considerably strengthened if this character proved constant. I 
thefore examined my original gathering, and such other specimens 
as I pos.sessed, and I found without exception the split pale. This 
character is not only true of mature specimens, but also of plants in 
flower, so that the splitting is not due to the rupture of the pale 
during the ripening of the caryopsis. Moreover, in B. interruptus^ the 
fruit is somewhat shorter, darker in colour, with a more conspicuous 
groove, and the two divisions of the pale are either free, or sometimes 
adherent to the margin of the fruit, usually they are shorter (sometimes 
only half the length) of the glume, but occasionally they are as much 
as seven-eighths. They are frequently glabrous, but sometimes the two 
ribs are fringed with cilia as in B. mollis. In B. mollis the pale is 
only slightly emarginate, but the hyaline tissue at the apex is fringed. 
In fruit B. mollis has the pale closely pressed against the face of the 
seed to which it becomes adherent to a slight extent, or at any rate 
not easily separable in the dry state, the glume is slightly narrower 
than the seed, so that the margin of the grain can be seen. My friend, 
Mr. Tufnail, like myself, became convinced from what he had seen of 
it in cultivation that it was distinct before he was made acquainted 
with the character of the split palea. He tells me he has no difficulty 
in picking out one grain from another in a mixed sample. The most 
striking feature of this plant is the inflorescence, which differs from 
all other species of Bromus known to me in that single short, stiff, 
pedicels arise alternately right and left of the main rachis, each 
bearing at its apex 3-5 sessile, or in some cases shortly-stalked, 
spikelets. To this fact is due the peculiar and strikingly interrupted 
and compact appearance of the whole inflorescence which is made up 
of clustered groups of 3-5 erect spikelets. This peculiar feature does 
not obtain in its nearest allies, since in them 4-5 slender pedicels of 
various lengths arise at the level on the rachis, each bearing one or two, 
rarely more, spikelets, hence the inflorescence in these is more loosely 
continuous. As will be seen its alliance is essentially with mollis, 
since the large or inner glume extends half way to the apex of the 
