AGROSTIS. 



153 



whole panicle, together with the delicate minuteness of 

 floret and branches, makes it a very elegant object, as it 

 flourishes on the borders of 

 fields, or in waste places in 

 alpine heights. 



There is a dwarf variety, 

 differing only in size from 

 the normal form, but named 

 by Koch A. alpina ; it has 

 been found among the Clova 

 mountains, on Ben Lomond, 

 and in the Isle of Arran. 



The A. canina flowers 

 from the end of June to 

 August. 



3. Agrostis setacea, Curt. Bristle Agrostis. 



Root perennial, fibrous, tufted ; stems filiform, erect, 

 roughish, one to two feet high ; leaves filiform, four or five 

 on the stem, and dense tufts at the root, rough, the root 

 ones long ; sheaths rough, striated, the uppermost one greatly 

 longer than its leaf; ligule long and pointed ; panicle ap- 

 proximate, only spreading while the florets are open, com- 

 pound, erect ; branches very slender, short, rough, placed 

 in clusters of three or five; spikelets small pointed; outer 

 glumes nearly, but not quite, equal, the lowest longest, not 

 ribbed, and toothed the whole length of the keel; both 

 sharply pointed ; flowering glume toothed at the apex, a 

 little shorter than the outer ones, with four ribs and hairs 

 at the base, awned ; awn rising from the base of the flower- 

 ing glume, long, fine, roughish, protruding a little beyond 

 the apices of the outer glumes ; palea very minute, scale- 



