226 GRASSES OF BRITAIN. 



Briza minor. 



Small Quaking - Grass. 

 Plate CI. 



Specific Character. — Ligule lanceolate. 



Descri-ption. — Root annual, fibrous, producing stems from four to 

 six inches in length. Stems hollow, smooth, roimd, bearing five or 

 six leaves with smooth, striated sheaths ; the upper sheath longer than 

 its leaf. Ligule of upper sheath lanceolate, about three times as long 

 as broad. Joints usually five, the upper situated about the centre of 

 the stem and generally covered by the sheath. Leaves flat, acute, 

 slightly roughish on both surfaces, the margins minutely toothed. 

 Inflorescence compound panicled, the branches roughish, slender, ele- 

 gantly divaricated, arising from the rachis mostly in pairs. Spikelets 

 compressed, of a triangular form, variegated with green and white, 

 and sometimes purple, composed of two glumes and five or six florets. 

 Glumes equal, membranous at the margins, three-ribbed, broad and 

 obtuse. Florets of two unequal paleae ; the outer palea of lowermost 

 floret broad, obtuse, strikingly gibbous behind, membranous at the 

 margins, lobed at the base in front, without lateral ribs. Inner palea 

 thin, flat, and furnished with two broad, green ribs. Styles two, dis- 

 tinct. Stigmas feathery. Filaments three, slender. Anthers notched 

 at each end. Scales two, acute. 



Ohs. — Briza minor is distinguished from Briza media in the ligule 

 being long and pointed ; glumes longer than the lowermost floret ; 

 — while in Briza media the ligule is short and blunt, and the glumes 

 shorter than the lowermost floret. 



This is a very rare grass, found growing in dry sandy fields in the 

 extreme south of England. It is also met with in Guernsey and 

 Jersey, as well as in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, 

 Spain, Turkey, Greece, and North Africa. 



Briza minor, Linn., Hooker, Smith, Btib., With., Koch, Kunth. Briza oj<pcra, Knapp. 



