248 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



The extreme minuteness of the outer glume causes it 



often to be overlooked, and 

 thus the grass has got the 

 name of One-glumed Fescue. 

 This is a maritime species, 

 frequenting sandy and stony 

 places about the coast. It 

 resembles the last in many 

 respects, and is common 

 throughout England, but is 

 not found in Scotland. 



It has no agricultural 

 value. 



It flowers in June and ripens its seed in July. 



It is indigenous on most sandy shores in western 

 Europe. 



Genus XXXIT. DACTYLIS. COCK'S-FOOT. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence in a slightly branched panicle ; 

 spikelets several-flowered, crowded into dense clusters; 

 outer glumes unequal, pointed, keeled, convex ; scales lan- 

 ceolate, pointed, swollen at the base ; filaments three, slen- 

 der, longer than the flowering glume ; styles spreading ; 

 stigmas feathery ; seed oblong, naked, furrowed. 



Dactylis glomerata, Linn. Clustered Cock's-foot. 



Root perennial, fibrous, tufted ; stem cylindrical, upright, 

 ribbed, rough, two feet high, leafy ; leaves flat, linear-acute? 

 flaccid, rough at the edges, of a dull green colour, five or six 

 on the stem ; sheaths rough, striated ; ligule long, ragged ; 

 panicle erect, slightly branched, spreading; the rachis rough, 

 branches few, simple, rough, the lowest much longer than 

 the others standing nearly at a right angle with the stem, 



