172 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Aug. 1, 1S69. 



A HANDFUL OF GRASSES. 



rpO the lover of Nature all her products are 

 -■- interesting, and he is but an indifferent 

 observer who cannot draw a lesson from the 

 meanest of God's creatures. 



I have before me now a number of coloured illus- 

 trations of British Grasses made from living speci- 

 mens during the year 1S66. Perhaps five minutes' 

 chat about their originals may not prove unaccept- 

 able to some of our gossiping friends. 



Among our commoner and more striking grasses 

 are the Foxtails (Alopecurus), a well-marked 

 genus. As the names, both popular and scientific, 

 indicate, the plants of this genus have much the 

 appearance, in miniature, of foxtails in their inflo- 

 rescence. The florets form a long cylindrical densely- 

 crowded spike. They are much flattened, and bear 

 but one flower. 



Of the four species into which 

 Mr. Bentham divides the British 

 members of this genus three, I 

 find, are abundant here; viz. 

 Alopecurus agrestis, A. geniculatus, 

 and A. pratensis. The two last 

 have a considerable resemblance 

 to each other, but confusion be- 

 tween them is' less likely to occur 

 in consequence of their different 

 habitats ; the one inhabiting 

 marshy lands and half-dry ponds, 

 the other more frequently dry or 

 upland pastures. 



The Slender Foxtail {Alopecurus 

 agrestis) in this locality appears to 

 be the least common species. The 

 specimen from which our figure 

 was drawn was plucked on St. 

 Mary's Island, an extensive marsh 

 now forming the extensive works 



Fig. 123. Slender Foxtail 

 {Alopecurus agrestis). 



Fig. 124. Floret of Alopecurus 

 agrestis, magnified. 



of the Chatham dockyard. It was formerly separated 

 from the mainland by a creek navigable at high tide. 

 I have found several rare and interesting plants upon 



it. But to return to our grass. It is a tall straggling 

 plant, with but small pretensions to beauty, growing 

 upwards of a foot high. Its leaves are broad, short, 

 and rough, with long rather close sheaths. The 

 culm, or straw, is generally more or less decumbent 

 at the base, and often geniculate at the nodes. The 

 spike is long and very slender (Fig. 123), of a purplish 



Fig. 125. Marsh Foxtail (Alopecurus geniculatiis). 



hue ; its florets, less closely imbricate than those of 

 the other species, are about three lines long ; the 

 outer barren glumes are awnlcss and cleft to the 

 middle ; the inner flowering glumes bear an awn, 

 which projects two or three lines. Fig. 124 repre- 

 sents a floret much magnified. Our next species, the 



