GEAMINE^. 583 



4 lines long, featliered with long soft liairs. Flowering glume mncli shorter, 

 and tliin, cleft into 2 awn-like points about the length of the outer glumes, 

 and bearing on its back a long, hair-like, bent awn, usually full twice the 

 length of the spikelet. 



In maritime sands, and waste places, common all round the Mediterranean, 

 and extending up the west coast of Europe to the Channel Islands. Fl. 

 early summer. 



XII. BEARDGRASS. POLYPOGON. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, densely crowded in a spike-like or slightly branched 

 panicle, otherwise as in Agrostis, except that the outer glumes end in a fine 

 awn. 



A genus of very few species, but widely spread over a great part of the 



globe. 



Awns three or four times as long as the spikelets 1. Annual B. 



Awns scarcely longer than the glumes themselves 2. Perennial B. 



1. Annual Beard^ass. Folypogon monspeliensis, Desf. 



{Agrostis panicea, Eng. Bot. t. 1704.) 



An annual, procumbent at the base or rarely erect, 1 to 1 § feet high, with 

 flat, rather flaccid leaves. Panicle contracted into a cyHndrical or slightly 

 branched spike, 2 to 3 inches long, of a yellowish shining green, and thickly 

 bearded with the numerous straight and very smooth awns. Outer glumes 

 nearly equal, notched at the top ; the fine awn proceeding fi-om the notch, 

 and 3 or 4 times as long as the glume itself. Flowering glume shorter, 

 often with a short, very fine awn. Palea smaller and awnless. 



In fields and waste places, on roadsides, etc., especially near the sea, com- 

 mon in the Mediterranean region, and eastward far into central Asia, ex- 

 tending up the west coast of Europe to western France, and very sparingly 

 along the Channel to Holland. Eare in Britain, and only in some of the 

 south-eastern counties of England. Fl. summer. 



2. Perennial Beardgrass. Folypo^on littoralis, Sm. 



{Agrostis, Eng. Bot. t. 1251.) 



A procumbent perennial, with the foliage nearly of the common Agrostis. 

 Panicle more branched than in the annual P., the glumes longer, tapering 

 into an awn scarcely longer than the glume itself. Flowering glume small 

 and awnless. The plant is, indeed, in habit as well as in character, almost 

 intermediate between Beardgrass and Agrostis. 



In salt-marshes, scattered here and there along the seacoasts of western 

 Europe, the Mediterranean, and North America. In Britain, very local on 

 the coasts of Norfolk, Essex, Kent, and Hampshire. Fl. summer. 



XIII. AGROSTIS. AGEOSTIS. 



Spikelets small, 1-flowered, and numerous, in an elegant panicle, with 

 slender branches often proceeding several from the same point, and either 

 erect, forming a narrow, almost spike-like, but loose panicle, or spreading, 

 at least at the moment of flowering. Outer glumes uaiTOw, boat-shajied, 

 pointed, but without awns. Flowering glume shorter, often bearing a fine 



