6o4 



THE NATURE BOOK 



construction being fragile in character. 

 It is a one-flowered grass, the fruit-bearing 

 scheme being comparatively attenuated as 

 compared with other grasses. The plant 

 with the creeping rootstock is always 

 the one to make colonies for itself and 

 force aside other species. In this way 

 the ]\Ielic may spread itself at the foot 



Melic is reduced to an almost spike-like 

 raceme hanging the brown or purple 

 flowering glumes all on one side. It is 

 also a simply constructed two-flowered 

 grass, producing those flowers early in the 

 year during May and June, and in habit 

 a perennial ; both varieties a\-erage from 

 one to two feet in height. 



MOUNTAIN MELIC. 



WOOD SMALL REED. 



BEARDED COUCH. 



of a group of beeches where the smooth 

 trunks rise from the dark leaf-soil in com- 

 parative bareness. Here the carpeting oi 

 green blades will hold its own, even 

 choking out the Dog's Mercury, another 

 colonising plant that splashes the dr}' 

 leaves with its strong, dark green foliage. 

 Melica nutans, or Mountain Melic, 

 altliough a shade-loving species, grows in 

 m<jre rocky regions where, maybe, stunted 

 bushes give shelter. In this species the 

 slender spreading panicle of the Wood 



One of the commonly known gi-asses 

 of our damp woods is the Millet Grass 

 {Milium cffusuui). It is the only British 

 species of that family, and a very hand- 

 some one, raising, as it does, erect, strong 

 stems of four feet, with fine branching 

 panicles of small glumes that catch the 

 glint of the light as it drops down through 

 the trees on their smooth surface. 



Usually the gi'ound surrounding the 

 tussocks is mossy with perhaps the 

 brilliant green of the Fern Moss or grey 



