22JP UTodder Sculpt
BROMUS.
Gene. Char. Calyx with two valves; spikets oblong, cylindrical, and two-rowed;
arista beneath the point. Gen. Plant.
BROMU S M O L L IS .{^ » » /.
Soft Broom-grass.
Spec. Char. Panicle upright, or drooping; floret valves obtuse; calyx ribbed, and clothed
with soft hair. -
The soft Broom-grass is one o f the earlier plants, and in warm and sheltered situations is among the
first that peeps through the shades o f winter, and continues for some months; it is a pasture grass
almost every where, and in some counties constitutes a very considerable part of the crop destined for
hay; but its1 virtues in that capacity admit o f some doubt, as its associates-in the field are chiefly of a
after growth, and by the time that they are in season, and the crop cut, the maturity of the Broom-
grass has passed, the straw turned brown, and the panicle dry and husky; nor is the foliage very
important: a simple glance at a field where this grass abounds, before the admission o f the scythe,
will shew how much useless vegetation a crop o f grass commonly contains, and consequently how
considerable a portion of hay is deficient in the nutriment required.------ The universal woolliness of
the straw, foliage, calyx, and florets, sufficiently indicate the species, but perhaps we have no plant
that varies more, and assumes such different appearances as this Bromus, and some o f these variations
have been elevated into the rank o f species, for which station they have been indebted to local circumstances,
'and not sufficient permanent specific characteristics. Bromus mollis will be found with
spikets ovate, and acutely ovate, containing from six to sixteen florets in the spicula.------The confusion
which so long enveloped this genus not only originated from the delusions of the various varieties
which this species runs into, but from the synonyms which authors referred us to, being perfectly
misunderstood and confounded, and the exuberance of a garden plant having often been compared with
the product o f an hungry soil: under these circumstances it would have been singular if in such a
genus, errors could have been avoided; to the labours o f my leamed'friend Dr. Smith we are indebted
for an exposition of this intricate race, and profiting by his illustrations we have been enabled to
attempt the exhibition of the British Brooms.--------- In Dumfries, Lanerk, and some of the southern
counties of Scotland, Bromus mollis is cultivated as Ray-grass is in England, either sown by itself, or
with clover, and it produces a plentifhl crop.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Floret Valves, the inner one sometimes notched.
C, the Germin towards maturity.