92 TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Agrostis. 



A. tenuis. Sibth. 36. 



A. capillaris. Abbot 14. Roth Germ. v. 2. 85. 



A. polymorpha a. Huds. 3 1 . 



A. stolonifera. Leers 20. t.4.f.6. Ehrh. Calam.7\. 



Poa n. 1475. Hall. Hist. v.2. 226. 



Gramen miliaceum, locustis minimis, panicula fer^ arundinacea. 



Rail Syn. 402. 

 S. Fl. Br. 80. Schrad. Germ. v. 1. 206. t.3.f. 1. 

 A. canina. IVith. 1 27. 

 y. f /. Br. 80. Schrad. Germ. v. 1 . 206. 

 A. pumila. Linn. Mant. 1.31. Willd. v . 1 . 371 . Light/. 1081. f. 



in title of v.2, bad. Dicks. H. Sice. fasc.\8. 3. Ehrh. Calam.X 05. 

 Gramen minimum palustre, panicula spadicea delicataj tenuifolium, 



semine exiguo rotundo. Scheuchz.Agr. 131. 

 8. Fl. Br. 80. With. 133. var. 3. 

 A. vulgaris e. Schrad. Germ. v. 1. 207. t.2.f. 4. 



In meadows, pastures, waste ground, and the borders of fields, 

 every where. 



Perennial. Julij, August. 



Root tufted, strong, somewhat creeping. Stems 12 — 24 inches 

 high ; in y 2 — 4 inches only ; erect or ascending, leafy, slender, 

 striated, smooth to the touch ; their lowermost joints often 

 throwing out roots. Leaves linear, narrow, taper-pointed, rather 

 spreading, rough on both sides, with long, striated, smooth 

 sheaths. Stipula extremely short and abrupt, by which, as Pro- 

 fessor Schrader long ago noticed, all the varieties of this species, 

 whether awned or not, are readily distinguished from A. canina, 

 as also from alba. Panicle purplish, very delicate, slender, uni- 

 formly divaricated, with equidistant, elastic, finely capillary 

 branches, collected into small tufts after flowering ; their lower 

 part smooth ; upper more or less rough, but the ultimate stalks 

 are smooth. Fl. small, erect, shining. Valves of the cahjx lan- 

 ceolate, concave, somewhat unequal, with membranous edges ; 

 the keel of the larger often roughish. Cor. of 2 thin, very un- 

 equal, valves ; the smaller notched at the summit, hairy at the 

 base ; larger 3 -ribbed, shorter than the calyx, usually awnless, 

 but sometimes, as in var. )3, and not unfrequently in y, furnished 

 with a dorsal rough awn, about twice its own length. The an- 

 thers project just beyond the calyx, and are oblong, cloven at 

 each end. Styles very short. Stigm. densely featheiy. Seed 

 ovate, tumid, especially in y, which is often, not always, infected 

 with the smut, or ustilago. In S the glumes become, more or 

 less, elongated and leafy, the fructification being transformed 

 into a bud, and the panicle viviparous. This happens chiefly in 

 shady or moist situations, where the whole plant is pale and 

 slender ; in dry exposed spots it is dwarf, condensed, of a fine 

 brownish pur])le all over. 



The earliness of this grass appears, according to Mr. Sinclair's ob- 



i 



