AIRA QM3PIT08A. 67 



AIRA C^SPITOSA. 



LINN^US. PARNELL. SMITH. HOOKER. ARNOTT. GREVILLE. KNAPP. 



WlLLDENOW. SCHRADER. LEERS. HOST. EHRHART. 

 OEDER. HUDSON. WITHERING. HULL. SIBTHORP. ABBOT. RELHAN. 



PLATE XX. 



Desckampsia ccesprtosa, LINDLEY. 



Gramen segetale, GERARDE. 



The Tufted Hair-Grass. 



Aim To destroy. Cczspitosa Tufted. 



AIRA. Linnaeus. The Hair-Grass is named from the Greek, and signifies 

 to destroy, but why it received this unwelcome name is apparently uncertain. 

 There are six British species. Having a spreading panicle, of which the 

 spikelets are laterally compressed. There are two florets present in each 

 spikelet, with a third imperfect rudiment between them; the outer palea of 

 each floret is rounded at the back and furnished with an awn. 



A VERY handsome Grass, the flowers of which are well adapted 

 ~/TA_ for decoration, being very graceful. It is a common species in 

 England, Scotland and Ireland, of no agricultural merit, being coarse 

 and rough, and with but little nutritive properties. It will flourish in 

 almost any situation, but prefers damp fields, where it grows into 

 large tufts, and is known to agriculturalists as hassacks, a Grass 

 difficult to destroy. 



It is a native of Norway, Sweden, Lapland, France, Italy, Germany, 

 North America, and the United States. Nowhere does it flourish so 

 luxuriantly as on the banks of a brook. 



The plant forms a large coarse tuft, and, as it is not eaten by cattle 

 except when nothing else can be procured, a field in which it abounds 

 has a singularly unsightly, and to farmers unwelcome appearance. 



