Seed quality. 
Explanation 
of plate. 
Botanical 
description. 
110 
are hairy at the base. The seed of purple melic Molinia cerulea (fig. 40), is distinguished 
by the absence of the awn and the projecting apex of the upper pale. At times, Vulpia 
bromoides (fig. 41), is used for purposes of adulteration. 
Seed and amounts to be sown. (ood average seed should have 85 %o purity and 50 %o 
germination =: 42.5 °/o of pure and germinating seed. According to the quality, the weight 
per bushel varies from 10 to 15 Ibs., on an average it is 13 or 14 Ibs. According to the 
variety, one Ib. of pure seed contains from 364,000 to 820,000 grains; when the spikelets 
are large, the number of grains varies from 364,000 to 450,000, but in the common variety 
up to 820,000. An acre of ground requires 30 Ibs. of seed containing 42.5 %/o pure and 
erminating = 13 lbs. nearly of pure germinating seed. 
By itself this grass gives a very small produce ; it should, therefore, always be used 
in admixture more especially to form bottom grass. It is very appropriate in permanent 
mixtures on suitable soils. It is most valuable as a pasture grass at high altitudes. 
a2 
D 
XXI Upright perennia brome. 
Bromus erectus, Hudson. 
Fig. A. Entire plant in flower, 
., B. Basal portion of a culm shewing the extravaginal branches springing from it. 
1. Spikelet in flower. 
2. Spikelet before flowering. 
,, 3 The pistil shewing the lateral styles, 
4. False fruit, ventral surface. 
5, False fruit, dorsal surface. 
G. False fruit, side-view. 
,. 7. Caryopsis, ventral surface. 
8. Caryopsis, dorsal surface. 
9, Caryopsis, side-view. 
, 10. Transverse section of a young branch, shewing an entire sheath and three-folded leaf 
blades within, 
, 11. Transverse section of a blade of a culm-leaf. 
,, 12. The ligule, short and obtuse, 
Botanical description. Upright brome is formed of a simple, compact tuft of branches, 
The branches are all extravaginal and ascend directly into the air without extending underground 
(fig. B.). The culm is rigid, erect, smooth and glabrous; ils height varies from 4 to 3 feet. 
The leaf-sheath (fig. 10) is entire and finely pubescent, The leaf-blade (fig. 10) is folded in the 
bud, a distinction from Bromus inermis which is conyolute in the bud; its margins are fringed with long 
rigid scattered hairs. The blades of the radical leaves and barren shoots are usually permanently folded 
and narrow while, on the culms, they unfold, thus becoming flat and broader (fig. 11). In each blade, 
there are from 7 to 14 strong veins and between these from 6 to 10 weaker ones. The stronger are ex- 
tended from the lower to the upper epidermis by the hard bast (fig. 41) and correspond to the shallow 
furrows which occur on both surfaces of the blade. The bulliform cells of the epidermis occupy the 
ridges; in most other grasses they correspond to the furrows as in the different species of Festuca. 
The ligule is short and obtuse (fig. 12). 
