PANICK-GEASS HAIE-GEASS. 317 



There are gigantic Panick-grasses in Brazil, with delicate 

 and tender foliage, most valuable for cattle ; and the Guinea- 

 grass, or Great Panick, forms the most profitable pasturage in 

 Jamaica. 



Our British Panick-grasses occur rarely, and in small quan- 

 tities ; they have two or three florets enclosed between 

 each pair of glumes, one of which is neuter. The glumes are 

 ribbed. 



The Rough Panick (Panicum verticillatum), has smooth- 

 jointed stems, and the glumes keeled. 



The Green Panick (P. vlride,^. 4), of which I have received 

 a specimen from Norfolk, has erect stems, and a crowded spiked 

 panicle ; and the Loose Panick-grass (P. crus-galli), has its 

 flowers to one side, the panicle branched, and the leaves lance- 

 shaped and harsh. 



The Hair-grass family have also two or three florets enclosed 

 between each pair of glumes ; the paleae continue unchanged 

 until the seed is ripe. 



The Crested Hair-grass (Aira cristata), grows only eight 

 inches high ; its panicle is lanceolate and downy. The Water 

 Hair-grass (A. aquatica), has a spreading panicle, and its 

 glumes are abrupt and notched. These two have no awns. 



The Tufted Hair-grass (A. coespitosa), is an elegant plant, 

 raising its large light panicles of glossy florets three feet high. 

 It grows in mat-like masses in woods and hedges ; the florets 

 have one awn from the bottom of the outer glume. 



The Wavy Hair-grass (A. flexuosa), is smaller ; its panicle 

 contains fewer florets, and the awn rises from the middle of 

 the outer glume. We have these Grasses in great abundance 

 about our woods and moors in Swaledale ; and Fanny has the 

 Waved species from the Cheese Wring, Cornwall. 



The Silver Hair-grass (A. caryophyllea), I gathered at 

 Plumpton Rocks, near Harrogate ; the cluster is less dense 

 even than that of the last-named species, and the flowers have 

 a silvery hue ; the awn is twice as long as the glumes. 



