254 BRITISH GRASSES. 



It flowers during all the summer months, and is at- 

 tractive because of its abundant purple anthers, which 

 partially cover the green spike. 



Mr. Sinclair recommends the culms of this grass above 

 all others for straw-plait, which it makes of a superior 

 quality; he gives ample instructions for collecting, pre- 

 paring, and bleaching them, as may be seen in our chap- 

 ter on Industrial and Economic Grasses. As a lawn- 

 grass the Cynosurus cristatus is very valuable, not only 

 for its creeping interweaving habit, but because its full- 

 coloured short foliage mingles so harmoniously with that 

 of Festuca ovina and its varieties, which are the best 

 adapted for lawn turf. 



2. Cynosurus echinatus, Linn. Rough Dog's-tail. 



Root annual, fibrous, downy; stems ascending, leafy, 

 cylindrical, striated, smooth, ten to thirty inches high ; 

 joints short, small; leaves lanceolate, ovate at their base, 

 acute, flat, striated, rough on both surfaces ; of a pale, dull 

 green colour; sheaths a little inflated, somewhat compressed 

 or two-edged, furrowed, roughish ; ligule lanceolate ; pa- 

 nicle simple, dense, of a silvery green, half an inch to three 

 inches long; spikelets alternate, ovate, with a beautiful 

 pectinated involucre at their base, the divisions of which 

 are rough ; outer glumes nearly equal, rough at the keels, 

 thin, awnless ; flowering glumes ovate-lanceolate, five-ribbed, 

 roughish ; palea finely fringed. 



A curious and even handsome grass when well-grown. 

 Its bristly head, all turned to one side, distinguishes it 

 from the Cynosurus cristatus, and still more broadly 

 from all other grasses. Generally it grows in a stunted 

 form, frequenting dry fields and waste places in the 

 Channel Islands and other warm situations; but it was 



