60 GRAMINEAi 
orange tint, and its stems, which do not seem to be eaten by cattle, wither 
early. The spike is by the middle of June of so bright a yellow as to have 
suggested the botanic name of the genus. 
A species known as A. puelii has been introduced from Central Europe in 
recent years, and has now become pretty widely distributed over the western 
half of England. It differs from the foregoing in being an annual, with more 
slender and more tufted stems, a looser panicle, and longer awns. The 
fragrance is not nearly so strong as in the native species. 
2. (47) Mart-crass (Nardus). 
Mat Grass (N. strécta).—Spike erect, slender ; the spikelets rather dis- 
tant, all pointing one way. Perennial. This is a rigid grass, growing in 
short tufts, and common everywhere on moors, heaths, and other dry places. 
It is five or six inches high, and bears in June its one-sided spike of flowers, 
which is often of a purplish or bronze colour, and armed with minute awns. 
The stems and leaves are slender, and hard, and too harsh to be much eaten 
by cattle ; the matted tufts which it forms suggested its familiar name. 
3. (4) Cur-Grass (Leérsia). 
European Cut-grass (L. oryzoides).—Panicle spreading with wavy 
branches ; spikelets half-oval, with numerous delicate hairs at the back. 
Perennial. This rare grass was discovered years ago by Mr. Borrer, in 
ditches, brooks, and wet places, in West Sussex and South Hampshire, and 
it has since been found in Surrey and Dorset. Its stem is one or two feet 
high, its leaves are broad and very rough at the edges, and it flowers from 
August to October. Mr. Babington remarks: ‘The panicle is rarely, if 
ever, protruded in this country, but is mostly included in the sheath of the 
uppermost leaf.” 
4, (5) Fox-Tain (Alopecirus). 
1. Meadow Fox-tail (4. praténsis).—Stem erect, smooth ; panicle spiked, 
cylindrical, thick, and blunt ; margins of flowering glume united towards the 
base, and, as well as the empty glumes, much fringed with fine hairs. 
Perennial. This tall grass, often two feet high, bears in May and June its 
yellowish-green erect panicle, about two inches long, and covered with silvery 
hairs. It comes into flower next in succession to the Vernal-grass, and, like 
it, is very abundant, often constituting the chief part of the herbage of plains 
and meadows. It becomes most plentiful and luxuriant in marshy lands, 
where, by its creeping rootstocks, it helps to drain and consolidate the soil. 
It often grows in salt marshes ; and in moist places the base of the stem 
becomes so enlarged, that if this portion only of the plant were regarded, it 
might be mistaken for 4. bulbdsus, which, however, has a long slender spike 
tapering at both ends. It is a most valuable grass for cattle, coming early, 
furnishing a large quantity of nutritive herbage, and yielding a better after- 
math than almost any other grass. Its seeds are easily collected, but Mr. 
Purton remarks that at least one-third of them are annually destroyed by a 
minute orange-coloured larva. Professor Buckman, who communicated the 
result of his experiments on grasses to the Gurdener’s Chronicle, remarks of 
