GRASSES OF SCOTLAND. 67 



lished behind ; ligule short and obtuse ; calyx shorter than the 

 lowermost floret ; awn very short, about one-fourth the length of the 

 palea ; and the involucre acute but not awned. 



Professor Graham, at a meeting of the Royal Botanical Society, 

 November 12, 1840, mentioned the Cynosurus echinatus as having 

 been found by Mr Thomas Edmonston, on a barren moor in one of 

 the Shetland Islands, being the only locality known in Scotland for 

 this interesting addition to the Scottish Flora. It is also met with, 

 although not common, in Northumberland, Durham, and the Isle of 

 Jersey. It does not occur in Ireland, Lapland, Norway, Sweden, or 

 America, or further north than the Shetland Islands. It is found in 

 Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Northern Africa. Of 

 no material agricultural use. 



Flowers in the end of June, and ripens its seed in August. 



46. Dactylis glomerata.* 

 Rough CocKs-Foot Grass. 



Specific Characters. — Spikelets in dense globular unilateral tufts. 

 Outer palea with a minute point a little beneath the summit. (Plate 

 XXIX.) 



Description. — It grows to the height of two feet or more. The 

 root is perennial, fibrous, tufted. Stem erect, round, striated, and 

 rough, bearing five or six leaves with rough striated sheaths ; the 

 upper sheath crowned with an elongated, membranous, often torn 

 ligule. Joints smooth. Leaves linear, flat, acute, spreading, rough 

 on both surfaces, harsh, of a dull-green, the edges minutely toothed. 

 Inflorescence compound panicled. Panicle erect, tufted, the upper 

 part dense ; rachis and branches rough ; the lowermost branches 

 spreading and furnished with a tubercle at the base. Spikelets nume- 

 rous, crowded, unilateral, on short, rough footstalks ; usually of 

 three florets. Calyx of two imequal glumes, (Fig. I), membranous, 

 more or less hairy, especially on the keels. Florets of two paleae (Fig. 

 2); the outer palea of lowermost floret rather longer than the calyx, 

 five-ribbed, hairy on the keel, furnished with a minute point arising 



* DaciyUs glomerata, Linn, Smith, Hooker, Lirdlcy, Grevillc. 



