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BRITISH GRASSES. 



drooping when ripe ; spikelets oval, sessile, in two rows, 

 each containing four or five florets ; rachis zigzag ; outer 

 glumes roughish, nearly equal, thin, somewhat hairy, awned ; 

 flowering glumes roughish, rather hairy, larger than the 

 outer ones, furnished with a long slender rough awn on its 

 summit ; palese the same length, with two green marginal 

 ribs. 



The Fibrous Wheat-grass is a denizen of bushy places 



and damp shady situations ; 

 it will live in open ground, 

 but it prefers shelter. It is 

 a tall, slender, elegant grass, 

 the spike generally arching 

 a little, and the stem -leaves 

 drooping in a flag-like man- 

 ner ; the leaves all being 

 smooth on the under surface 

 is a good mark of distinction, 

 and the awns on the flower- 

 ing glumes is a still more 

 valuable one. 



Cattle eat this grass with 

 avidity, and it produces a good quantity of early herb- 

 age ; these points qualify it for a good position among 

 agricultural grasses. Its latter math is inferior. 

 Frequent in every part of Britain. 

 Its foreign homes are Lapland, Norway, Sweden, 

 Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, 

 Iceland, and Siberia. 



It flowers early in July, and ripens its seed in August. 



