100, AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 
with two feathery styles; some foreign plants 
of the Graminez have 2 stamens, others 6. 
The filaments are often long, and hang out of 
the flower with the anthers suspended to them. 
To some of the glumes there is appended a 
bristle, long or short, sometimes knee’d and 
twisted, called an awz, This awn may be an 
extension of the tip of the glume; {or Grane 
pale; or it may spring from the base of the 
flower, or from the middle of the pale. It has 
hygrometric properties, and will bend at the 
knee or return to its position, according as the 
air is damp or dry. 
The flowers of grasses are very sensitive to 
change of atmosphere, and to absence or pre- 
sence of sunshine, closing or opening under the 
varying circumstances. 
The earliest grass of the season, if we except 
Poa annua, is Aira precox, whose short stems 
are very stiff and erect, and neatly jointed so 
as to be like a miniature bamboo; the panicle 
is very close, and the flowers are awned. ‘The 
universal species is Poa aunua, which takes 
speedy possession of every undisturbed plot of 
ground, 
The species which form the hay-crops are 
