

TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Sesleria. 139 



m 



to 5 inches long ; branches few, distant, nearly upright. Calyx 

 with :, 5, or * florets, but mostly with 2 ; and though the 

 number of florets, and its general habit, which it must be con- 

 fessed but ill accords with that of the other Melicas, have in- 

 duced some to consider it as an Aira, the presence of the pedicle 

 marks its real situation. In some specimens gathered in the New 

 Forest the florets are a little hairy at the base, which circum- 



A r undo. 



le Me 



Hall 



species as an 

 Leers. Scop. 



Boggy barren meadows and pastures „ [New 

 forest, Hants.] P, June, July.* 



M. Panicle thinly set: calyx with 2 florets^ one herma- uniflo'ra. 



phrodite, the other neutral. 



Curt. 301-fY. dan. HM~Mont. 2. 1-//. ox. viii. 7. 49- 



7 



1151. 3. 



of neutral ft 



the blossom and the inner valve of the calyx, together with its 

 fruitstalk as long as the blossom, composed of the rudiments of 

 3 and even 4 florets, each consisting of 2 membranaceous valves 

 similar in shape to those of the perfect floret ; each supported on 

 £ fruitstalk of its own, rising from the base of the inner valve of 

 the last rudiment ; and each as small again as the floret below 



it. No stamens or pistils in any of them. Conjectured it to 

 be a var. of the nutans, and called it M. nutans unijiora. From 

 15 to 18 inches high, or more. Straw angular, ascending. 

 Panicle of few flowers, scattered, 3 to 5 inches long; branches 

 3 or 4, distant, pointing one way, rarely subdivided, bowed 

 whilst in flower, afterwards upright, 



M. Lobel'ti. Villars. Mellca nutans. Huns. — Wood Melic. 

 Woods and hedges, not uncommon. [Lanes in Devonshire very 

 frequent. Plantations of T. Pearson, Esq, Tettenhall, Staf- 

 fordshire.] P. May— July. 



SESLE'RIA. Involucr. 1 leaves : Cat. 2-valved, 



with from 1 to 3 florets : Bloss. toothed at 

 the end. 



Horses, sheep, and goats eat it. Chermh graminls is found upon it. 

 Linn — l n the turf moors below Glastonbury, Somerset, in great abund- 

 ance. The country people make of the straws of this grass a neat kind of 

 besoms, which they sell to the housewives in the neighbourhood, as a • 

 cheap and no despicable substitute for hair brooms. Mr. Swaynf..— 

 Flourishesin the neighbourhood of the copper works at Parys mountain 

 in An^ie^ea, while almost every other vegetable, even Lichen*, are in- 

 jured or destroyed. Pe*n. Wkkt ii. 265. 



