AgroStlS.'] evil. GR AMINES. 537 



the culm broad, of the barren shoots narrower, rigid, and convolute 

 when dry. Panicle 1 — 4 inches long, at first spreading, afterwards 

 compact. Hairs not half the length of the glumellas. In the Irish' 

 plant, called C. Lapponica in a former edition of this work, the 

 spikelets are larger, the branches of the panicle shorter, and the up- 

 permost ligule longer and more acute ; but in the true C Lapponica^ 

 the glumes are described as 1-nerved, the awn is bent, and the hairs 

 are scarcely shorter than the glumellas. 



[C pyramidalis of Host is said to have been collected near Hebden 

 bridge, Yorkshire, by the late Mr. S, Gibson^ but we have seen no 

 Specimens.] 



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14. Agrostis Linn. Bent-gi-ass. (Tab. VI. f. 13.) 



\ Panicle loose. Spikelets laterally compressed. Glumes 2, 

 acute, membranaceous, longer than the floret, awnless. Floi^et, 

 sessile, glabrous or with 1—2 tufts of very short hairs at the' 

 base. Glumellas 2, unequal ; the inner sometimes wanting, the 

 outer with or without an awn, Caryopsis free, oblong, or linear. 

 — Name : given by the Greeks to grasses, from aypoc^ a fields 

 because they are so abundant in open places. 



Upper glume the smaller. Neuter floret 0, 



, 1. A. canina L. {brown B.) ; branches of the panicle long 

 slender erect-patent, glumes unequal lanceolate rough at the 

 keel, outer one 1-nerved, glumella 1 erose at the end 5-nerved 

 with a dorsal awn from below the middle, leaves linear, sheaths 

 smooth, ligule oblong acute. JE. B. t. 1856: Parn. Gr. t. 15. 



. Moist heaths and moory places, abundant. Ij,, 6, 7. — Very va- 

 riable in the size and colour of its flowers, purple or green, and in the 

 length of the dorsal aivn, which is sometimes included within the 

 glumes, at other times considerably exserted. We have never seen 

 more than one glumella, not even the rudiment of a second ; and it is 

 from this circumstance that Schrader has constituted of it the genus 



Trichodium, But other species of Agrostis have very reduced glu- 

 mellas; and A. setacea, placed in Trichodium by Dr. Lindley, has as- 

 suredly always an inner one. Smith and Leers have detected an 

 inner one, even in A. canina ; hence, as the former observes, its pre- 

 sence or absence does not afibrd even a specific character. 



2, A. setdcea Curt. {Bristle-leaved B,) ; branches of the pani- 

 cle short close spreading in flower, glumes unequal lanceolate 

 rough at the keel,outer glumella erose at the end 4-nerved with 

 a long geniculate twisted awn from its base, inner very minute, 

 leaves setaceous, sheaths rou^^h, liojule oblong acute. E. B. t. 

 2138: Parn. Gr. t. 83. 



. Very local, almost wholly confined to the dry downs of the extreme 

 south and south-west parts of England, as Hampshire, Devonshire, 

 and Cornwall. If., 6, 7. — Larger glumella white, thin, and mem- 

 branous, truncate at the top, with 4 green nerves, of which two, the 



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