CLASS III. ORDER II. 1 AVENA. 143 



rescence an erect, long, slightly branched panicle ; its branches arising 

 in alternate half-whorls, slightly angular, and roughish. Spikelets 

 erect, spreading when in flower. Glumes unequal, lanceolate : the 

 otiter smallest, keeled; the inner keeled, and with two lateral ribs. 

 Florets two or three, each on a short footstalk, densely clothed with 

 shining, white, rigid hairs ; the upper one mostly imperfect, often only 

 a footstalk terminating in a tuft of hairs. Glumelles lanceolate, une- 

 qual : the outer longest, obscurely five-ribbed, variegated with green, 

 and purple ; the upper part thin and membranous, white and shining, 

 jagged at the extremity ; men arising from above the middle, and about 

 as long again : inner valve membranous, folded, the apex bifid. 

 Stigmas protruding, densely feathery. 



Habitat. — Dry pastures, most abundant ; on a chalk or limestone 

 soil, not uncommon. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This grass possesses considerable merit as forming a part of the grass 

 of permanent pastures in a dry soil : it is hardy, and very productive ; 

 but the nutritive matter which it aff'ords, observes Mr. Sinclair, contains 

 a greater proportion of the bitter extractive principle than the nutritive 

 matter of those grasses that aff'ect a similar soil, which lessens its merits 

 in those respects, and must prevent its being employed in any consi- 

 derable quantity as a constituent of a mixture of grasses for laying 

 down such soils to grass. 



7. A.flaves'censjhinn. (Fig. 185.) yellow Oat-grass. Panicle erect, 



loose, much branched ; florets about three, equal in length to the 



nnequal glumes ; the outer valve with two terminal bristles ; 



leaves flat, slightly downy. 



English Botany, t. 952. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 166.— Hooker, 



British Flora, vol. i. p. 54. — Sinclair, Hort. Gram. Woburn. p. 161. — 



Trise'tumfiaves'cens, Beauv. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 309. 



Root fibrous, with more or less creeping underground stems. Ste7n 

 erect, from one to three feet high, smooth, except occasionally hairy 

 about the joints, finely striated, slender, leafy. Leaves linear, narrow, 

 flat, tapering at the point, striated, hairy, especially on the upper side. 

 Sheaths close, striated, more or less scattered with deflexed hairs. Li- 

 gula very short. Inflorescence an erect, rather close panicle ; its 

 branches arising in alternate half-whorls, long, slender, angular, rough- 

 ish, and repeatedly subdivided. Spikelets numerous, small, of a shining 

 yellowish-green. Glumes unequal, lanceolate, membranous except 

 about the keel and ribs : the outer valve smallest, with a rough keel; 

 the inner with a rough keel, and two lateral ribs. Florets from two to 

 four, longer than the outer valve of the glumes, each elevated on a 

 short hairy footstalk, Ghimelles nearly equal : the outer valve with 

 membranous margins, from three to five-ribbed ; the apex bifid, teimi- 

 nated by two short, roughish awns ; the roughish dorsal aum from 



