198 GRASSES OF BRITAIN. 



Stipa PENNATA. 



Feathery- Grass. 



Plate LXXXVII. 



Specific Character. — Awn of the floret very long, feathery. 



Description. — Root perennial, fibrous. Stem erect, round, smooth, 

 hollow, usually about two feet high, bearing four or five leaves, with 

 roughish sheaths, the upper sheath longer than its leaf. Ligule of 

 upper sheath hairy, long and pointed, about twice as long as broad. 

 Joints three or four, all covered by the sheaths. Leaves long, slen- 

 der, rigid, setaceous, frequently hairy on both sides. Iriflorescence 

 racemed, bursting from the upper sheath. Spikelets large, fevi^, com- 

 posed of two glumes and one floret. Glumes of nearly equal lengths, 

 long, slender, furnished with a few long, scattered hairs, especially 

 on the keels. Floret about half the length of the glumes, of two pa- 

 lesB, the outer palea five-ribbed, hairy, and pointed at the base, ter- 

 minating in a long feathery awn. Inner palea rather shorter than 

 the outer, membranes acute. Awn arising from the very summit of 

 the outer palea, and frequently more than twenty times the length of 

 the palea, soft and feathery the whole length, except at the base, 

 where it is twisted for about the space of an inch. Sti/les two, dis- 

 tinct. Stigmas feathery. Filaments three, capillary. Anthers 

 notched at each end. Scales acute. 



Ods. — This grass, which is so well known, on account of its beau- 

 tiful feather-like appearance, is said to have been found wild on lime- 

 stone rocks in the county of Westmorland. It is cultivated in gar- 

 dens of the curious, and serves in winter as an ornament to our rooms. 



It grows wild in many places in Germany, in dry sandy situations. 

 Its agricultural merits rank among the inferior grasses. 



Flowers in the early part of August, and ripens its seed about the 

 middle of September. 



The accompanying figure was taken from a cultivated specimen. 



Stipa X)ennata, Linn., Koch, Smith, Hooker, Knapp, Lind., Bab. '- 



