P L A T E L X X X V .
BROMUS . p y . C Withering's Rot. Arraug.
O JT J li JLV. Bromus nemoralis,
| Bromus ramosus, Hudson.
Short-awned pendent Broum.
Sp e c . C h a r . Panicle drooping; arista shorter than the floret valyej hairs of the sheathing
pointing downwards.
Some little likeness exists between the B. asper and the preceding sterilis, but a very slight inspection
suffices to distinguish them: the aristae in the B. asper are always very short, and the leaves and sheathing
furnished with hair, those on the sheathing directed downwards; the larger floret valve has a few short
hairs lying close; the inner valve is fringed, but less so than generally observable in this species.
Bromus asper is a prominent instance o f the impropriety of altering, according to versatile fancy,
the once established trivial names o f plants, and of the extent that such alterations may be carried when
once the evil practice has commenced; this Bromus bearing no less than eight specific names!
One cannot but admire the singular manner in which Nature has armed the straw of this Bromus.
by pointing the hair downwards, possibly with a design to prevent insects creeping up the stem, and
consuming its tender and immatured germin; and the pendent form it always assumes leads us to
conjecture that that disposition was chosen by infinite wisdom to guard the infant offspring from the
noxious dripping of trees, or the elevated plants among which its station is fixed: in a more advanced
age, when that germ- is matured, the pendent habit is yet continued, lest the seeds should by moisture
vegetate in the husks and become abortive.------ I f the limited faculties of human nature may, without
presumption, hazard inferences from the mechanism of the works of Nature, surely she would not
have bestowed so much wisdom for its preservation upon this Bromus, to fit it only to occupy the
humble and inutile rank it now holds in our estimation! wonderous in all her walks, to one race, to
one age, she does not unveil her inexhaustible - stores, but metes them out to employ the mind, and
reward the industry of man through all successive generations, till time shall be no more.
A, the Calyx.
B, the valves of the Floret.
The base o f the leaves are furnished with claviculae or hooks for clasping the straw.