188 
TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Rromus. 
Soft Brome Grass. Lob Grass. Oat Grass. (Welsh: Pawr-wellt 
maswy. E.) B. May—June.* 
(B. racemo'sus. Panicle rather upright, spreading ; fruit-stalks undi¬ 
vided ,* spikets egg-shaped, six-flowered ; florets tiled, depressed, 
striated, smooth. FI. Brit. Awns as long as the glumes: leaves 
somewhat downy. 
E. Bot. 1079— Hort. Gram. — H. Ox. viii. 7. 19. 
More slender than B. mollis. Straw rather smooth. Leaves on both sides 
hairy, but a little rough at the edges. Sheaths rough with hairs for the 
most part bent outwards. Panicle thin, not compact, simple. Fruit- 
stalk half whirled, scabrous, elongated, scarcely ever two-flowered. 
Spikets like those of B. mollis , but very smooth, scarcely seven-flowered, 
shining, varied with white and green, nerves but little prominent. Awns 
rough, the length of the valves. FI. Brit. Calyx ribbed, awnless. Awn 
of the blossom not quite straight. 
Smooth Brome Grass. Welsh: Pawr-wellt llyf’n. B. polymorphous, var. 
3 and 4. With. B. arvensis. Dicks. H. S. E. Bot. 920, excluding the 
synonyms. Sincl. B. pratensis. E. Bot. 1984, at the bottom. Ehrh. In 
meadows and pastures. At Holkham, Norfolk. Mr. Crowe. Earsham. 
Mr. Woodward. Bayton, Wilts. Mr. Lambert. At Battersea. Smith 
in Eng. FI. Caroline Park, Edinburgh. Hooker. A. June. E.)t 
B. squarro'sus. Panicle drooping; spikets egg-shaped; awns wide 
apart. Linn. Panicle unbranched. Huds. 
(j E. Bot. 1885. E.)— Barr. 24. 1— Scheuch. 5. 11— Mont. 32. 
Panicle nutant. Spikets smooth, egg-shaped, each on a little pedicle, 
thread-shaped, but thicker towards the top. Awns divaricating. 
Open-awned Brome Grass. (Corn Brome Grass. E.) Corn-fields 
near Glastonbury, and Marshfield, Sussex. Huds. A. July. 
This is inserted on the authority of Mr. Hudson, but I have never seen a 
native specimen. (Smith is apprehensive that Hudson mistook B. secali- 
* Mr. Swayne says this grass is disliked by farmers as being in corn-fields a trouble¬ 
some weed, and in pastures and mowing grounds of little value, since it has generally 
shed its seed by the time of mowing, and produces very few root-leaves. (Notwith¬ 
standing its early produce we are inclined to consider it as one of the worst of an inferior 
tribe. Mr. Salisbury adduces the awn of this grass, (though not peculiar to it), as an in¬ 
stance of the wonderful mechanism by which Nature enables the seed to make its way 
into the ground when the land is so thickly covered with other herbage, that all the art 
of man would fail to effect such a purpose. By the susceptibility of the awns to atmos¬ 
pherical changes, curling up in dry weather and relaxing with moisture, a continued 
motion is occasioned, which empowers the seed to penetrate through the foliage to the 
soil, and therein by the same process speedily to bury itself. Even this little isolated 
fact should encourage habitual observation, and a conviction that the wisdom of God is 
manifested in every object, though few of us may take the trouble to inquire in what 
particular contrivances and adaptations this wisdom is displayed ; and therefore are we 
too apt to rest satisfied with vague and general views, which seldom produce any deep 
impression on the mind. But he who does not acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator 
in the least of His works, as well as in great and extraordinary phenomena, betrays a 
highly Culpable negligence, bordering on impiety. 
“ There’s not a plant, nor flower below, 
But makes his glories known.” E.) 
t (This, with the other annual Bromes, is scarcely worthy of the farmer’s attention. 
