ITS FAVOURITE HABITAT. 



five in number, are arranged like the fingers of a hand, on 

 the summit of a short curving stem. 



This glaucous-leaved herb is the Panicum dactylon (i.e., 

 fingered-millet) of Linnaeus. The long trailing rhizomes, 

 joined to some less prominent characters, have been suffi- 

 cient for some botanists to create a special genus, Cynodon, or 

 Kynodon (a Greek word, signifying literally " Dog's-tooth "), 

 and to change the Linnean denomination of our grass into 



FIG. 24. (P. 93.) 



Cynodon dactylon. It is seldom met with in cultivated land ; 

 but in such a locality as we have already described, and 

 sometimes on open sandy shores, where the summer sea 

 comes with a gentle ripple and a subdued music, it may 

 frequently be found. Its long, tough runners creep through 

 and over the loose soil for many yards, rooting at every 

 joint, and furnished with flat, rather short leaves, of a 

 glaucous hue. The flowers grow in narrow, linear spikes, 

 arranged at the top of a short leafy stem in the form of 



