642 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
Description of A, Briza maxima, Large Quaking Grass, natural 
Plate 302. size, 
B, Lagurus ovatus, the Hare’s-tail Grass, natural size. Fig. 1 is a 
separated spikelet of this species, and Fig. 2 a seedling. 
C, Aira pulchella, the Hair Grass, natural size. B and C will be 
found described below. 
HARE’S-TAIL GRASS 
Natural Order GRAMINEX. Genus Lagwrus 
Lacurus (Greek, lagos, a hare, and owra, a tail: in allusion to the 
appearance of the inflorescence). A genus consisting of but one species, 
a hardy annual, native of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. 
It occurs in Guernsey, and has been naturalised in Essex. 
LAGURUS OVATUS (egg-shaped). Stems numerous, 
stout, downy, erect, leafy below, 6 to 10 inches high. 
Leaves short, broad. Spikelets massed in a dense, silvery-white, shaggy 
head, nearly an inch across; June. Each spikelet is composed of two 
empty glumes and one flowering glume. (See Plate 302, Fig.1.) The 
empty glumes are much longer than the other, and end in long feathery 
points. The flowering glume is slender, rounded, with two short awns 
and a very long bent and twisted one. 
Hare’s-tail Grass thrives best in a sandy soil, and is 
raised from seed, which may be sown in spring or autumn. 
The best plants, with the largest number of flowering stems, are obtained 
by sowing the seed as soon as ripe in pots of sandy soil out of doors, 
bringing them into a cold greenhouse or frame before winter sets in, 
Species. 
Cultivation. 
and planting out in spring. Or they may be kept in the pots for — 
flowering. 
HAIR GRASSES 
Natural Order GRAMINEX. Genus Aira 
AirA (the old Greek name for a species of Grass). A genus of four 
or five species of hardy Grasses with two-flowered spikelets arranged in 
a light, loose panicle, on fine, wavy, hair-like branches. There are two 
nearly equal empty glumes, and the flowering glumes are convex, toothed, 
and awned at the back. There are three stamens, a smooth ovary, and 
i —s 
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