80 GRAMINEAR 
soil even before the time of weeding commences. It is less useful for hay 
than as green fodder. It is one of the sweetest grasses, and it is thought 
that during more than eight months of the year it ripens and deposits seed. 
This circumstance, and its growth under a lower temperature than any other 
grass will submit to, render it almost like a perennial on the green mead, and 
it is well suited for parks and lawns, with the vernal grass and white clover, 
as it does not turn yellow, like sheep’s fescue, and some other grasses used 
for pleasure-grounds, but makes a beautiful and permanent verdure. Much 
do those who delight in the green lane or wide-spread meadow owe to this 
little plant. It has many fibres to its root, and they serve to fix the grass so 
firmly that the frost, which loosens so many plants, leaves this steadfast as 
ever. ‘Jt becomes,” says Mr. Knapp, “a support to its needy neighbours 
in winter, and by its plentiful and sheltering foliage preserves a certain degree 
of humidity during the exhalations of summer.” It is sometimes the pre- 
vailing grass on meadow land. 
The stem of the Annual Meadow-grass is from six to ten inches high ; its 
leaves are rather blunt, and somewhat soft and drooping. It is the plant to 
which we might refer when we use the comparison “ green as grass,” for its 
hue is always bright and never tinged with purple. 
27. (29) HEATH-GRASS (Triddia). 
Decumbent Heath-grass (7. decvimbens).—Panicle of a few 2—4- 
flowered spikelets on very short stalks, which are often undivided ; glumes 
nearly equal, almost as long as the spikelet. Perennial. This grass is very 
abundant on dry pastures and heaths, especially in mountainous countries. 
It was formerly included in the genus Poa, butit is very unlike the plants of 
that family in its general appearance, and its spikelets are very much larger 
than those of any meadow-grass, save P. fluitans. The plant varies less than most 
grasses. Its stems are rigid, from six to twelve inches high, and bend at the 
base, but those which bear the flowers are upright. The leaves and sheaths 
are rather hairy, the former narrow and tapering to a sharp point; and the 
large spikelets are commonly four or five in number, and rarely exceed seven ; 
they are arranged alternately on the upper part of the stem. ‘The glumes 
are rounded on the back, firm and leathery, and of a pale green colour, quite 
covering the flowering glumes ; and instead of a ligule to the leaf there is a 
tuft of hairs. This grass is of little service on the hilly pasture. 
28. (38) QUAKING-GRASS (Briza). 
1. Common Quaking-grass (L. mdédia).—Panicle with straggling 
branches ; spikelets broadly egg-shaped, of about 5 flowers; empty glumes 
very concave, heart-shaped, and blunt, and shorter than the flowering glumes. 
Waving to every wind, and shaken even by the approaching footstep, this 
pretty quaking, or tottering, or ‘‘doddering” grass is plentiful on meadows 
and pastures in. the month of June. Our old writers call it Pearl-grass, and 
some country people know it by the name of Maiden’s-hair. Its botanic 
name, taken from the Greek verb “to vibrate,” is expressive of its nicely- 
balanced spikelets, which hang on branches so slender as to cause a continual 
tremulous motion. The stem is twelve or eighteen inches high. the spikelets 
