AIRA, 171 



stand thus far into the autumn, and even through the 

 winter. 



Its foreign homes are Lapland, Norway, Sweden, 

 Germany, France, and Italy, North America, and the 

 United States. 



2. Aira flexuosa, Linn. Wavy Aira. 



Root perennial, fibrous ; stems almost naked, erect, slen- 

 der, flattish, ribbed, often tinged with purple ; joints three, 

 smooth ; leaves bristle-shaped, fleshy, the upper ones rough, 

 but those of the root smooth except near the summits ; 

 sheaths ribbed, rather rough, the uppermost much longer 

 than its leaf ; ligule blunt ; panicle forked, compound, 

 spreading ; the branches slender, the branchlets wavy, often 

 placed in threes ; rachis rough on the upper part ; spikelets 

 not nearly so numerous as in the last species, containing two 

 perfect florets and a rudimentary one, of brownish tint and 

 very glossy ; outer glumes unequal, not ribbed, with rough- 

 ish keels, membranaceous, lanceolate, pointed ; florets nest- 

 ling within the outer glumes and partly concealed by them ; 

 flowering glume toothed at the summit, hairy at the base, 

 awned ; awn geniculated, rising below the centre of the 

 keel, and extending beyond the summit of the flowering 

 glume to the apex of the larger outer glume ; palea the 

 same length as the flowering glume, thin, pointed, some- 

 times with two slightly developed teeth at the summit, 

 fringed at the edges. 



This grass is quite as ornamental an object as the 

 last-mentioned one, though its panicles contain fewer 

 florets, and it is therefore less calculated for extensive 

 decoration, Its fibrous roots are liable to become 

 woolly in sandy ground, like those of the Lagurus ova- 

 tus ; the stems grow in loose tufts, not many together ; 



