

136 



TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Aira. 



fiexuo'sa. A. Leaves like bristles : straws almost naked : panicles di- 

 verging : fruit-stalks serpentine, 



i 



Schreb. 3Q-FL dan> IbJ-Scheuch. pr. 6. l-H. ox. Viii. 7. 

 ro<w 3. 9. at the comer, &c. -Leers 5.1. 



About a foot high when young, taller when old. Panicle fine 

 glossy purple, from 2 to 3 inches long, and \ inch broad ; branches 

 serpentine and nearly upright in its young state, the florets mostly 

 pointing one way ; as it approaches maturity the purple fades, 

 the branches expand so that the panicle then measures 1 or 1^ 

 inch across. Blossoms woolly at the base ; awn knee-bent, half 

 as long again as the blossom. 



Heath Hair-grass. Heaths, woods and barren pastures. [Wick 

 Cliffs. Mr. Swayne. — Rocky moors in the North. Mr. Wood- 

 ward. — Crib y Ddeseil. Mr. Griffith. — Dry woods in Sut- 

 ton Park, Warwickshire, and woods in the New Forest near 



Stoney Cross.] 



P. June — Aug 





monta'na. A. Leav 



flo- 



rets hairy and awned at the base : awn twisted and 

 longer. 



o 

 Scheuch. itln.p.4:55.f. \5Scheuch. pr. 4. AS tilling. 4— 

 Leers 5. 2- Florets 3 Scheuch. 4. 16. A. B. C. 



i 



If the Aira montana of the Linn. Herbar. be really different 

 from the A. flexuosa, I apprehend it has not been found in this 

 island, for all which I have seen are decidedly the same species, 

 only that when the plant gets older, the straw increases Us 

 length, the panicle spreads, and its fine purple colour fades ; in 

 which state it has been called A. Jlexuosa, and in its younger 

 state A. montana. The figures in Scheuchzer's itinerary and 

 prodromus, quoted by Linnaeus in fl. Suec. countenance this 

 opinion. Having communicated these ideas to Mr. Relhan, 

 who thought he had found the montana in Cambridgeshire, he 

 authorizes me to say that his plant is only the flexuosa. 



High heaths and sandy pastures. 



P. July, Aug 



Var. 2. setacca. Awns twice the length of the florets. HtfDS. 

 [Stratton Heath, Norfolk. Mr. Crowe.] 



of it. The leaves of this grass are the roughest and coarsest of all the 

 grasses growing in pasture or meadow grounds, and therefore cattle will 

 seldom touch them, unless forced by hunger. It produces an abundant 

 quantity of leaves, and few flowering straws ; has a very disagreeable ap- 

 pearance in meadows, and often occupies much ground which might be 

 made to produce better grasses. To get rid of it, the land should first be 

 drained, and then the tufts of this noxious weed should be pared up and 

 burnt. The ashes will be a good manure. Called by the common peo- 

 ple Hassocks, Rough Caps, Bulls Faces. Mn SwAtMt 





