82 GRAMINEA& 
alternately on the wavy upper part of the stem. Each spikelet has from 
2—5 flowers, the outer flowering glume ending with a very short awn. The 
slender stem is from half a foot to a foot and a half high, and the leaves are 
flat, tapering to a point, smooth and shining on the under surface, but rough 
above. It is a very common grass on dry pastures; and its crested spike 
may, in August, after the young leaves have been cropped or withered, be 
seen standing up in numbers, so as to give a brown tint to the sward. It is 
a grass well fitted by the slender nature of its foliage for lawns and pleasure- 
grounds, which are often subjected to the scythe, and where it would not 
remain long enough untouched to assume this brown hue. 
The fine, uniform, and strong stems of this Dog’s-tail-grass have been used 
in plaiting straw for bonnets, and several other of our native grasses have 
been found useful for this purpose. Cobbett, who made many experiments 
on this subject, considered that the straw of our wild yellow oat (Avéna 
flavéscens) was better fitted than any other native species for this purpose ; he 
recommended also the vernal-grass, rye-grass, and the dog’s-tail grass as well 
worth attention; and others have tried with success the mat-grass (Ndrdus 
stricta), and the sheep’s fescue, as well as some species of bent (Agrdstis). 
In has been thought by good botanists that these grasses might be exten- 
sively used for plaiting-straw instead of the wheat-straw now commonly used 
for bonnets. The wheat which furnishes this straw is chiefly grown on light 
soils of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The straw used in the Tuscan 
bonnets is obtained from a species of wheat sown on poor soils, that it may 
produce long slender stems; and the Leghorn hats are made of the same 
straw differently worked. 
2. Rough Dog’s-tail-grass (C. echindtus).— Raceme compact, egg- 
shaped, with awns as long as the flowering glumes. Annual. This is a very 
rare grass, found on sandy sea-shores in the Channel Islands, from which it 
appears to have been introduced to the English coasts. Its stem is slender, 
one or two feet high, the leaves flat, tapering to a sharp point, and rough on 
both sides. The author has a specimen gathered near Manchester, which is 
more than three feet in height, with its greyish-green bristly cluster an inch 
and a half long, but this is unusually large. The spikelets are small, and 
crowded on short stalks, all turning one way, and the fine divisions of the 
involucre at the base are very rough. This grass flowers in July. 
31. (41) Fescur-crass (Festuca). 
1. Single-glumed Fescue (fF. wunigliimis).—Raceme in two rows, 
turning one way ; lower empty glume very minute ; flowering glume shorter 
than their awns. Annual. This is a very local grass, known from the other 
species of Fescue by having apparently one glume, the other being scarcely 
perceptible. The stem is from half a foot to a foot high, and very leafy. 
The flowers have 2 or 3 stamens ; it grows on sandy sea-shores, and flowers 
in June. 
2. Barren Fescue (F. bromotdes).—Panicle turning one way; glumes 
very unequal, their awns rough. Annual. In one variety of this grass the 
flowering panicle is erect and spreading; in another the panicle droops at 
the end, and is long, narrow, and spike-like. The latter form, myuros, is 
