188 HORTUS ORA.MINEUS WOBl) K N ENSIS. 



Specific character: Panicle spreading, triple-forked, with 

 wavy branches ; florets about the length of the calyx, 

 acute; awn from the middle of the outer valve, longer 

 than the calyx, twisted ; leaves bristle-shaped. 

 Obs. — The culms and leaves grow in dense tufts; the 

 panicle, before the time of flowering, is of a fine glossy 

 purple colour; the blossom is woolly at the base; awn 

 knee-bent, half as long as the blossom ; calyx generally 

 two-flowered, rarely three ; the inferior floret sitting. 

 Native of Britain. Root fibrous, perennial. 

 Experijnents. — At the time of flowering, the produce 

 from a heath soil incumbent on clay, is 10,209 lbs. per 

 acre. 

 The produce of latter-math is 2,722 lbs. per acre. 

 The aira Jiexuosa is much more productive on its natural 

 soil than ihe festuca oviiia ; but it requires a deeper soil, 

 though not a richer. The festuca ovijia is more common 

 among heath {erica vulgaris), the aira Jiexuosa among furze 

 (ulex EuropcBus), though both grasses frequently grow inter- 

 mixed on the same soil. To those who attempt the improve- 

 ment of such soils in a secondary manner only, this species 

 of hair-grass appears to be the best of those grasses natural 

 to the soils in question, and may form a principal part of a 

 mixture of seeds for that purpose of improvement. 



Flowers in the first week of July. Seed ripens in August. 



POA cenisia. Soft Meadow-grass. 



Specific character: Panicle diff'use, nodding; spikelets 

 oblong, five-seven-flowered ; florets connected at the 

 base by a villus ; sheath-scale short ; root fibrous. 



Obs. — This grass holds a place between the poa laxa and 

 pou alpitia. It differs from the first, to which it is 

 nearest allied, in the culms being twice the height, 

 and roundish towards the top ; sheath-scale short ; 

 panicle diffuse, but always contracted before and after 

 flowering ; spikelets larger, oblong five to seven-flowered. 

 From the poa aipina it differs also as above, but chiefly in 

 the panicle, which is nodding, spikelets oblong, and 

 florets free. 



