412 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



moors on Bilberry moors, on Heather moors, in 

 Grass moor associations forming a typical facies in 

 arctic-alpine vegetation, in the closed moorland asso- 

 ciation, etc. 



Mat Grass has the typical grass habit, and is closely- 

 tufted. The rootstock is stout and creeping. The 

 stems are erect, slender, rigid, furrowed, angled, 

 wiry. There are long pale sheaths below. The 

 leaves are fine, bristle-like, channelled, roughish, stiff, 

 the upper erect, the lower spreading or squarrose. 

 The sheaths are smooth. The ligule is short. 



The panicle is unilateral, one-sided, slender, close, 

 solitary, simple, purplish. The rachis is slender, 

 rigid. The spikelets are distant, one-flowered, 

 stalkless, alternate, in two rows. The flowering 

 glume is slender, red or purple, spreading after 

 flowering, rough above, narrowed into a short rough 

 awn. The lower palea is awned, the upper mem- 

 branous. There are three stamens and a simple style. 



In height Mat Grass is 2 to 8 in. It flowers 

 from June to August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



The flowers are wind-pollinated. The stigma 

 ripens before the anthers. The spikelets open at the 

 tip for the stamens and the style to project. 



The caryopsis is dispersed by the wind. 



Mat Grass is called Black Bent, White Bent, Wire 

 Bent, Ling, Mat-weed, Nard. 



Nardus stricta. — In the illustration {Fig. 120) are 

 two plants showing the tufted habit, the long bristle-like 

 leaves, and the onesided panicle. 



