566 GRAMINACEAE 



Native, Pascual, &c. Damp pastures, ditches, commons, heaths. 



woods, swamps, &c. Generally distributed and common. P. 



June-August. 

 First record. Aira caespitosa, Turfy Hair Gi*ass, Dr. Noehden. Its 



leaves are extremely coarse and little relished by cattle. It is 



injurious in meadows, and can only be extirpated by draining and 



burning, Mavor's Agr. Berks, i8og. 

 Var. BREviFOLiA (Parnell, Gr. Brit. 236 sub Aira). Rare on chalk 

 debris near Hampstead Norris ; probably a form rather than a true 

 variety. 



Var. AEGENTEA, S. F. Gray, Nat. Ai-r. ii. i:^-] = 2 Aira altissima, Lam. 

 Fl. Fr. iii. 581. 



Wytham Wood, the author in Rep. of Bot. Exch. Club, 1887. Pi'ofessor 

 Hackel considers it to be not a variety but a shade-grown form ; but 

 I have seen plants with pale yellow inflorescence growing in open 

 meadows along with typical D. caespitosa, so that shade alone is not the 

 cause of the different colour. Analogous instances are to be found in 

 Calamagrostis Epigeios, Agrostis alba, and vulgaris, &c. The pale-flowered 

 plant has been noted in all the districts, as at Ipsden, Bagley, Cothill, 

 Unwell Wood, Ashampstead, Aldermaston, Windsor, &c. 



Var. PARvsFLORA, which appears to be the Aira parviflora, Thuill., FI. 

 Par. ed. 2, i. 38, is the shade-grown plant with much smaller spikelets, 

 which I have seen in the woods of Wytham, Swinley, Aldermaston, 

 Easthampstead, and Windsor. 



B. caespitosa is found commonly in all the bordering counties. 



[D. DISCOLOR, Roem. & Schultes, Syst. ii. 686 (1817). 



Aira setacea, Huds. Fl. Angl. 30 (1762). D. setacea, Lend. Cat. ed. 8. 



Syme, E. B. xi. 68, t. 1733. Nyman, 808. Is recorded for Surrey and Hants, and 

 may yet be fonnd in the district of the Loddon on the Bagshot Sands. 



This plant is placed in the genus Ai7'a in Index Keivensis, notwithstanding 

 its near ally D. flexuosa is put under DescTiampsia. In the same work the 

 authors say D. discolor of Roem. et Schult. is not Aira setacea of Huds., but 

 is D. flexuosa and D. juncea. Prof. Hackel believes that D. discolor, the name 

 adopted by me, is synonymous with Ai7'a setacea.] 



D. flexuosa, Trin. in Bull. Sc. Acad. Petersb. i. (1836) 66. Heath Hair 

 Grass. 

 Aira flexuosa, Linn. Sp. PL 65 (1753), and Herb. 



Top. Bot. 480. Syme, E. B. xi. 67, t. 1732. Nyman, 808. Fl. Oxf. 338. 



Native. Ericetal. Heaths and fields on sandy soil. Locally common. 

 P. June- July. 



First record. Gramen foliolis junceis oblongis radice alba, C. B. P. Found 

 at the head of the Bogs at Wooten Heath, three Miles from 

 Oxford, Ray, Syn. ed, 2, 277, 1696. Gramen nemorosum paniculis alhis, 

 capiXlaceo folio, C. B. Pin. In Ericeto solo glareoso haud longe ab 



