162 BRITISH GRASSES. 



bright delicate hairs surrounding the floret, and scarcely 

 reaches as far as their points. 



Moist woods and shady ditches are the situations 

 selected by this reed ; it is not a common species, but 

 is pretty frequent among bushes in damp places in the 

 south of England and in Ireland, also in some of the 

 northern counties in sheltered situations, and in Angle- 

 sea and Shropshire. Very rare in Scotland. Its fo- 

 reign homes are Lapland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, 

 and Germany. 



It flowers in July or very early in August, seeds at 

 the end of August or beginning of September. 



2. Calamagrostis lanceolata, Eoth. Purple Small- 

 reed. 



(Arundo calamagrostis, Eng. Bot.) 



Root perennial, fibrous, scarcely creeping; stem erect, 

 round, very smooth, three or four feet high, leafy, slenderer 

 than the "Wood Smallreed, sometimes branched ; joints wide 

 apart ; leaves linear, acute, narrow, somewhat involute, pale 

 green underneath, rough above, sometimes hairy ; sheaths 

 long, close, striated, smooth, or nearly so, uppermost one 

 longer than its leaf; ligule lanceolate, often lacerated, de- 

 current ; panicle compound, seven or eight inches long, 

 spreading when in flower, and contracted before and after; 

 spikelets scattered, erect, numerous, on compound, slender, 

 rough branches ; outer glumes of a chestnut or purple 

 colour, nearly equal, lanceolate, acute, keeled, rough on the 

 back, without lateral ribs, toothed the whole length of the 

 keel ; flowering glume much shorter than the outer ones, 

 white, torn at the apex, five-ribbed, awned from a little 

 below the summit, and surrounded by a number of long 

 white, silky hairs ; awn small, rough, slender, extending 



