Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



open panicles tinged with blue and purple. This grass is spoken 

 of by one writer as among the tallest of British grasses, often 

 attaining a height of six feet in that 

 country, where its stems are oc- 

 casionally used in weaving coarse 

 floor-mats. Here,theTuf- 

 ted Hair-grass is from 

 two to four feet tall, a 

 variable species with flat 

 leaves, somewhat smaller 

 spikelets, and stouter 

 stems than are seen in Wavy Hair-grass 



Wavy Hair-grass. Deschdmpsiaflexu- 

 dsa (L.) Trin. 



Perennial, tufted. 

 Stem 1-2^ ft. tall, slender, erect. Sheaths much 



shorter than internodes. Ligule i"-2" long. 



Leaves I'-y' long, involute and bristle-like, 



those of the stem very short. 

 Panicle 2'-8' long, widely open, branches hair- 

 like, spreading, wavy, spikelet-bearing toward 



the extremities. Spikelets 2-nowered, about 



2|" long, green tinged with rose, silvery and 



translucent in fading. Scales 4; outer scales 



acute, slightly unequal; flowering scales acute, 



divided at apex, hairy at base, bearing a bent 



and twisted dorsal awn about 3" long. Rach- 



illa prolonged. Stamens 3. 

 Dry soil. June to August. 

 Labrador to Ontario, south to North Carolina 



and Tennessee. 



OATS, CULTIVATED AND WILD 



"It is their chiefest bread-corn for lannocks, 

 Haver cakes, Tharffe cakes, and those which are 

 called generally Oten cakes: and for the most 

 part they call the graine Haver, whereof they do 

 likewise make drinke for want of Barley." 



Who does not remember a field of oats 

 under a July sky? The bright leaves 



" Green, and all of a height, and unflecked with 

 a light or a shade." 



139 



Wavy Hair-grass 

 Deschampsia Jlexuosa 



