GRASSES OF SCOTLAND. 133 



Description. — It grows from one to two feet high. The root is 

 perennial, fibrous. Stem erect, round, smooth, and slender ; bearing 

 four or five leaves, with hairy striated sheaths, especially the lower 

 ones ; upper sheath shorter than its leaf, crowned with an obtuse 

 hairy ligule. Joints four, hairy, the first and second very remote. 

 Leaves polished, of a darkish-green, broadish, sharp-pointed, rough - 

 ish on the outer, and hairy on the inner surface ; finely striated, with 

 five of the ribs very distinctly marked. Injlorescence racemed, 

 approaching to a spike, the peduncles of the spikelets being very 

 short but distinct ; the upper part slightly drooping ; the rachis 

 quite smooth. Spikelets long and linear, usually of ten awned florets, 

 arranged on the rachis alternately in two rows. Calyx of two ra- 

 ther unequal acute (sometimes awned) seven-ribbed glumes, (Fig. 4), 

 more or less hairy. Florets of two paleae (Fig. 2), the outer pa- 

 lea of lowermost floret rather longer than the calyx ; more or less 

 hairy, seven-ribbed ; furnished with a long straight rough awn, sel- 

 dom longer than the palea, arising from the very summit. Inner pa- 

 lea rather shorter than the outer palea, obtuse at the summit, with 

 two green marginal ribs strongly fringed on the upper half. 



Obs. — The long cylindrical spikelets will readily distinguish this 

 species independent of any other character. 



This grass is the Brachypodium sylvaticum of Beauvois, Festuca 

 sylvatica of Smith, and Bromus sylvaticus of Pollich : but, as I can 

 discover no essential generic distinction between it and Triticum ca- 

 ninum, I have therefore removed it to the genus Triticum. 



Triticum sylvaticum is of no agricultural importance, as oxen, horses, 

 and sheep refuse to eat it, except in cases of extreme necessity where 

 there is no choice. Hares and rabbits have been observed to crop 

 the extremity of the leaves during deep snows and severe frost. Its 

 natural place of growth is in damp woods and moist shady places ; 

 it also thrives well when cultivated in open ground. It is a frequent 

 grass in Scotland, England, and Ireland ; also a native of Germany, 

 France, Switzerland, Italy, and Russia. Not kno\vn in America. 

 Its limit of altitude is about 1000 feet above the sea. 



Flowers in the first week of July, and ripens its seed about the end 

 of the same month. 



