HiEROCHLOA. TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 151 



Rooi perennial. Culm about a span high, erect, smooth, firm. 

 Leaves linear-lanceolate, smooth, acute. Sheaths longer than 

 the joints, a little swelling. Panicle about 2 inches long, 

 branches in pairs, thick, smooth, each bearing 2 or 3 spikelets, 

 which are twice the size of those of H. borealis, not tumid, 

 shining and coloured with purple. Calyx with very obscure 

 lateral nerves, semitransparent, rather obtuse. Antheriferous 

 florets slightly hairy under a lens, lacir.iated at the apex; 

 superior valve folded within the inferior, linear-lanceolate, 

 2-nerved, bifid, with the segments hairy, Awn of the lower 

 floret one third the length of the valves; in the superior one 

 longer than the valves, straight and scabrous. Anthers linear. 

 Nectaries minute, laciniate. Perfect floret with nearly equal 

 valves ; the inferior hairy towards the extremity, which is entire 

 and mucronate ; superior valve lanceolate, entire. Stajntns — 

 Styles filiform, as long as the plumose stigmas, ^ftctaries 

 lanceolate, laciniate. 

 Hab. On the summit of the White Hills of New-Hampshire, 

 7000 feet above the level of the ocean. June. Big e low. 



This interesting grass, a native of the most northern parts of 

 Europe, has hitherto been found in ibis country, only in the loca- 

 lity above given, where it was discovered by Prof. Bigelow 

 and Mr. Francis Booth. To the former of these 

 gentlemen I am indebted for the specimens from which my 

 description was drawn. It appears to differ a little from the 

 H. alpin'us of Wahlenberg, particularly in the lateral 

 florets being triandrous, (not diandroiis.) 



50. HOLCUS. L. 



Calyx 2-flowerecl; glumes membranaceous, some- 

 what boat-shaped, mucronate. Florets polygamous; 

 the inferior sessile, perfect, unarmed; superior floret 

 antheriferous, or neuter, pedicellate, awned on the back, 

 near the middle. Gen.pl. 1565. Nutt. Gen. I. p. 

 63. P. de Beauv. t. XVII. f. 10. Roem. ^ 

 ■ Schult. Gen. 3-26. Trin. Agrost. 128. Flowers 

 in contracted panicles. Soft grass. 



H. lanatus L. : panicle equal ; florets shorter tlian the 

 calyx, the superior with a recurved awn ; root fibrous. , 

 »^n/ J. Spec, IV. p. 933. M u hi. Gram. ^,11 A, Pursh 

 Fl. I. p. 78. 



Moot perennial. Culm a foot and a half high, and with the leaves, 

 covered with a soft hoary pubescence. Leaves flat, broad- 

 linear, acuminate. Stipule short, truncate. Panicle oblong, 

 contracted, partly concealed at the base by the sheath from 

 which it proceeds. Flowers of a whitish appearance. Glumes 



