46 CLASS III. ORDER III. 



m 



Syn. HoLCTJs borealis. Schroder. 



HOLCUS FRAGRANS. Willd.? 

 HiEROCHLOA BOREALIS. R. ^ S. 



This is one of our earliest grasses, and distinguished by the 

 deliglitfully fragrant odor it exhales while drying. Culm one or 

 two feet high, smooth, invested with very short, remote lanceo- 

 late leaves. Panicle erect, sometimes one sided, with large, 

 distinct, chesnut colored flowers. Calyx, two valved, acute, 

 scarious, containing three florets about as long as itself. Two 

 lateral florets barren, strongly ciliate on the inside. Middle 

 floret perfect, ciliate at the end. There are no awns, unless the 

 longest hairs be so called. — Meadows, Cambridge, Dorchester. — 

 May. — Perennial. 



This grass agrees with 11. odoratus of Europe much better 

 than with H.fragrans of Willdcnow, if indeed the latter be any 

 thing more than a variety. 



^§ Subgenus Torresia. Calyx three flowered, two baiTcn 

 florets aumed on the back. 



HoLcus ALPiNus. Wcilil. Alpine soft gross. 



Panicle small ; calyx oblong ; florets hairy with a 

 geniculate awn on the back. 



Syn. Hierochloa alpina. 72. Sf S. 



This grass I found in 1816, and, not having seen Wahlenberg's 

 Flora Lapponica, named it H. monticola. Its habit resembles 

 that of H. odoratus, but it is shorter, smaller, and more fragrant. 

 Calyx smooth, purplish, acute, longer than the florets. Florets 

 three, two outer ones obtuse, crested, slightly ciliate within, 

 awned on the back. Central floret perfect. — On the White 

 mountains of New Hampshire. — July. 



50. LOLIUM. 

 LoLiUM PERENNE. L. Roy grass. Darnel. 



Spike awnless ; spikelets compressed, longer than 

 the calyx. Sni. 



Stem a foot or more in height, round, smooth. Leaves smooth, 

 with short stipules clasping the stem. The stem terminates in 



