176 FLOWERS OF ROCKS, WALLS, ETC. 



prostrate at the base, and then erect and tufted. The leaves are rough 

 along the margin and below, flat, and either smooth or downy. The 

 ligule is short and torn. 



The flowers are in whorls, in a large spreading pyramidal panicle, 

 which is both light (hence the Latin name since every wind sets it 

 blowing) and graceful, with branches at right angles. The slender 

 awn is long, being 3-4 times as long as the palea, which is surrounded 

 by a tuft of hairs below, and silky, giving the plant the English name. 

 The anthers are linear and oblong, and the glume is hairy. 



Silky Wind Grass is 2-3 ft. high. The plant flowers in June and 

 July, and is annual, propagated by seeds. 



This graceful grass is bisexual and anemophilous. There are 

 3 stamens in the male flowers, and the anthers are linear. The styles 

 are short and distinct, and as in other grasses the stigmas are feathery. 

 The flowers open about 6 a.m. 



The fruit, which is a caryopsis, is light and blown to a distance 

 by the wind, or falls to the ground close to the parent plant. 



This grass is a sand-loving plant growing on sand or loam. 



Apcra< Adanson, is from the Greek aperos, undivided, in allusion to 

 the flowering glume; Spica-venti, Lobel, is Latin for spike of wind, 

 because the panicle is constantly agitated by the wind. 



Silky Wind Grass is also called Corn Grass and Windlestraws. 

 Gerarde explains the second name thus: "Some in English, much 

 agreeable to the Latine name, call these windle straws. Now I take 

 this to be the grasse with which we in London do usually adorne our 

 chimneys in summer time. And we commonly call the bundle of it 

 handsomely made up for use by the name of Bents." Corn Grass 

 he explains thus: " Gramen segetalc, either of the likenes it hath 

 with corne, or that it groweth among corne ". 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



331. Apera Spica-venti, Beauv. Stem tall, flowers in spreading 

 panicle, slender, awn three times as long as the palea, with hairs on each 

 side. 



Silvery Hair Grass (Aira caryophyllea, L.) 



This slender, graceful grass is found throughout the North 

 Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, and has been introduced into 

 N. America. It is unknown in early plant beds. It is absent in 

 Great Britain only in S.E. Yorks, and ranges as far as the Shetlands, 

 up to 1400 ft., in the Highlands. It is native in Ireland and the 

 Channel Islands. 



