AGR08TI8 SPICA-VENTI. 63 



AGROSTIS SPICA-VENTI. 



LINNAEUS. HOOKER AND ARNOTT. SMITH. HUDSON. LEERS. KOCH. 



OEDER. WITHERING. HULL. 

 RELHAN. ABBOT. WILLDENOW. KNAPP. SCHRADER. 



PLATE XVIII. B. 



Anemagrostis spica-venti, PARNELL. LINDLEY. 



Gramen harundinaceum, GERARDE. 



The Spreading Silky Bent Grass. 

 Agrostis A Field. Spica-venti Wavy spike. 



THIS beautiful Grass is by no means a common species, although 

 it has been procured in the counties of Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, 

 Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, 

 Berkshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland, Durham, 

 and Northumberland. In Scotland it is one of the rarest Grasses, 

 being only found on the Fifeshire coast. 



Abroad it is procured in the middle and south of Europe. 



Grows in light sandy soil, more particularly in fields that are some- 

 times flooded. 



Root annual and fibrous. Stem upright, smooth, circular, carrying 

 five narrow, acute, spreading, rough, ribbed leaves, with roughish 

 sheaths; the upper one extending beyond its leaf, and having a lengthy, 

 lanceolate, jagged ligule at its apex. Joints naked. Inflorescence 

 compound panicled, spreading, and loose. Panicle of great size, glossy, 

 with slender, rough, sub-divided branches disposed in alternate clusters, 

 the centre one being the longest. Rachis usually smooth. Spikelets 

 numerous, diminutive, of one awned floret of the same length as the 

 calyx. Calyx consisting of two unequal acute glumes, with rough 

 keels, the uppermost one largest. Floret of two palese, exterior one 

 ovate-lanceolate, roughish, and bearing a tuft of hairs at the base. 



