HEATHS AND MOORS 



167 



roughish above, bent bi-low. The root is fibrous, 

 Moloiiit'erous. The loaves are short, rough, with 

 raised ribs, bluishjjreen, smooth, narrow, acute, 

 flat or with inrollcd margin. The lower sheaths 

 are more or less smooth. The culm is smooth. 

 The panicle is racemose, narrowed after flower- 

 ing, usually simple, or with only one spikelet. 

 The spikelcts are pale, shining. The flowers are 

 erect, 3-6, and exceed the glumes. The flowering 

 glume is rough. The flower-stalk is silky. The 

 awn is slightly bent, as long as the glume. The 

 plant is 1-2 It. in height, flowering in June and 

 July, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Downy Oat Grass (Aveiia finbfscciis, Huds.). 

 — The habitat of this grass is dry pastures, chalky 

 and limestone areas. The plant has the grass 

 habit. The stems are not so densely tutted as in 

 the last, and creeping. The le.ives are flatter, 

 short, rounded, behind the tip. The radical leaves 

 are hairy. The culm is h.iiry below (hence pit- 

 besceiis). The panicle is erect, simple, the lower 

 branches divided into five. The 2-3 erect flowers 

 are longer than the glumes. The outer palea is 

 jagged. The awns are spreading. The ligule 

 is acute. The plant is 1-2 ft. high, flowering in 

 June :ind Juh-, iind is a herbaceous perennial. 



Heath Grass (Sieg/ingia decumbens, Bcrnh.). — 

 This plant is indigenous, and fou?id on dry pas- 

 tures, and moors, heaths, rough pastures, and dr)' 

 places. The plant has the grass habit. The root 

 is fibrous. The plant is prostrate. The stems are 

 densely tulted, rigid, smooth, leafy. The leaves 

 are flat, blunt, leathery, slender, at length inrolled, 

 hairy below. The sheaths are grooved, the lower 

 hairy. The ligule is a tuft of hairs. The panicle 

 is erect, racemose. The spikelets are few, 6-10, 

 turgid, oval, shining, pale-green, purplish. There 

 are about 4 flowers extending beyond the glumes, 

 without awns. The lower palea has 3 points (hence 

 Triodia^ an older generic n;ime), and is 5-ribbed, 

 and hairy below. The empty glumes are large, 

 ovate, acute, with a rough keel, with membranous 

 margins. The flowering glumesareovoid, leathery, 

 bearded below. The plant is 6-12 in. high, and 

 flowers in July. It is a herbaceous perennial. 



Blue Moor Grass (Sesleriacarulea, Ard.). — The 

 habitat ul this plant is c.ilcareous pastures and 

 hills, the hilly pastures, limestone districts on 

 rocks, and pastures. The habit Is the grass habit. 

 The root is fibrous. The plant is tufted. The 

 stems are erect, smooth. The leaves are narrow, 

 linear, fl.at, bluish-green ab^jve, with a rough tip, 

 blunt, the upper ones very short. The she;iths 

 are flattened and split up into fibres. The ligules 

 are short and fringed with hairs. The panicle is 

 ovate 10 oblong, bluish-purple, more or less one- 

 sided. The florets are overlapping. The outer 

 pale.a terminates in 4 teeth, the midrib being rough, 

 ending in a point. There are long linear stigmas. 

 The anthers arc tipped with purple. The pl.int is 

 6-18 in. high, and flowers between April and June, 

 being a herbaceous perennial. 



Purple Moor Grass (Molinia ccerulea, Mcench 

 = M. vciria, Schrank). — The habitat of this grass 

 is moors, wet moors, and wet heaths. The habit 

 is the grass- habit. The stems are wiry, round in 

 section, finely furrowed, with a single node below, 

 above naked. The leaves are flat, long, linear, 

 narrow, tufted, rigid, hairy below, the tip slender. 

 There is no ligule. The sheaths are without hairs. 

 The panicle is erect, long and narrow, stout, with 

 a wavy rachis and erect branches, purple (hence 

 cceruled). The spike is 1-3-flowered, narrow, 

 purple, the empty glumes acute, the lower palea 

 3-veined, without an awn. The flowering glumes 

 are deciduous, ovate to lance-shaped. The anthers 

 are violet-brown. The plant is 1-4 ft. in height. 

 It flowers in July and August, and is a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



Fesluca bromoides, L. {= F. sciuroides. Roth). — 

 This grass grows on dry heaths, often where the 

 soil is calcareous. The stem is naked below. The 

 leaves are bristle-like, linear. The upper sheath 

 is far distant. The panicle Is erect to spreading, 

 contracted, oblong. The sjjlkelets are arranged 

 one side of the rachis, branched or spiked. The 

 flowering glumes are awned, the glumes somewhat 

 unequal. The plant is 4 in. to 2 ft. in height. It 

 flowers from June to August, and is a herbaceous 

 annual. 



