410 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



clay and loam in damp oakwoods, in neutral grass- 

 land on chalk in chalk grass-land. 



This rather coarse plant has the normal grass habit. 

 The stems are creeping below, erect, stout, smooth, 

 tufted. The whole plant is roughish. The leaves 

 are broad, flat, linear, limp, rough at the margin, with 

 roughish keels. The ligule is long. 



The flowers are in a rigid panicle, which is green 

 and violet. The lower branches are few, long, rigid, 

 roughish, in flower spreading or horizontal, erect in 

 fruit. The branches form dense ovate clusters with 

 the panicle, and may be reduced to one cluster. The 

 branches are usually spreading and the flowers distant. 

 The spikelets are ovate, oblong, rough, flattened, and 

 three- to five- flowered. The glumes are lance-shaped 

 with a well-marked keel, with a fringe of hairs on 

 the back, acute above. The empty glumes are 

 two, membranous. The flowering glumes are more 

 pointed, sometimes awned, and are five-nerved. The 

 lodicules are feathery. There are three stamens. The 

 caryopsis is flattened one side, grooved the other, 

 enclosed in the glume. 



In height the Cock's-Foot Grass may be i to 4 ft. 

 It flowers from June to September, and is a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



Pollination is effected by aid of the wind. The 

 stigmas ripen a little in advance of the anthers. The 

 stigma is long-lived. Unlike other grasses the anthers 

 do not turn down. The flowers open between 6 

 and 9 a.m. 



