_Brachypodium_ may easily be confounded with _Bromus_, but the spikelets are nearly sessile: their shape and the absence of conspicuous notches distinguish this genus from _Agropyrum_. _Lolium_ has a conspicuously notched rachis and the spikelets arranged in the other plane. _Poa loliacea_, Huds., an uncommon sea-shore weed, may also be placed here; as also _Festuca elatior_, var. _loliacea_, Curt. and some forms of _Bromus arvensis_, var. _mollis_, L. No other British grasses resemble _Brachypodium_: any superficial likeness remarked in species of _Hordeum_, _Festuca_, &c. disappears at once on examination. (_b_) Spike compound--i.e. with clusters of two or more sessile or sub-sessile spikelets arranged along the rachis. (i) Spike elongated, fertile spikelets with 3-5 flowers. * _Pasture-grass with wiry rachis, on which the spikelets are secund and sessile in clusters: in each cluster a comb-like group of barren glumes subtends one of fertile spikelets._ _Cynosurus cristatus_, L. The rare _C. echinatus_ has the pectinate groups of barren glumes even more prominent. ** _Stout glaucous sand-binder with pairs of spikelets sessile in the notches of the rachis, and all fertile. Spike cylindrical. Not common._ _Elymus arenarius_, L. For other sand-binders see p. 102. The only grass likely to be confounded is _Agropyrum_, in which the spikelets are not paired. _Lolium_, _Brachypodium_, &c. are easily distinguished. (ii) Spike short and ovoid: spikelets sub-sessile and imbricate, in clusters. Bluish. _Sesleria cærulea_, Ard. Not easily mistaken for any other grass. As some of the spikelets are shortly stalked, the inflorescence is strictly paniculate, but the fact is not obvious. The glume-like bract at the base of the spike, and the general appearance suggest resemblances to certain moor-sedges at first sight. The only other grasses with similarly shaped spikes are species of _Alopecurus_, _Phleum_, and the rare _Lagurus_, _Polypogon_, _Phalaris_, _Panicum_, all with very different spikelets and easily distinguished. (+2+) +Inflorescence a panicle or raceme--i.e. the spikelets on evident stalks, simple or branched, from the main axis.+ It does not follow that every spikelet is distinctly stalked, and cases occur where the stalks are very short and stiff: when this happens to the stalks arising from the main axis, and the latter is elongated, the type of the spike is closely approached, and the inflorescence resembles that of _Brachypodium_, _Lolium_, &c. In some depauperated varieties of _Poa_, _Festuca_, &c., an actual spike results (see note, p. 111): the number of flowers in the spikelet is important.