290 BRITISH GRASSES. 



glume being five-ribbed instead of three-ribbed, and by 

 the upper leaves overtopping the panicles. The panicles 

 contain fewer spikelets, and these are pale green, not 

 purple, and are one-flowered. It is a much less attrac- 

 tive-looking grass than the common species. 



Molinia caerulea, var. brevirarnosa. Small Purple 

 Molinia, a dwarfed variety of the Purple Molinia. — Its 

 panicles are smaller, narrow 7 , and of a darker purple, and 

 it flowers in August. It grows on peaty moors. Sheep 

 will eat the herbage of this variety when young, but they 

 reject It as soon as it becomes hard. 



Genus XXXVIII. MELICA. MELICK. 



Gen. Cliar. Panicle simple or compound, containing a few 

 large spikelets ; spikelets awnless, containing one or two 

 flowers and a wedge-shaped glume, enclosing one or two rudi- 

 mentary florets ; outer glumes ovate, concave, thin, nearly 

 equal; flowering glumes ovate concave; palea ovate, flat; 

 scale single, fleshy, horizontal; ovary top-shaped; styles 

 two, bristle-shaped, spreading; stigmas oblong, feathery; 

 filaments hair-like, thickened at the base ; anthers oblong, 

 cloven at each end ; seed ovate, with a longitudinal furrow 

 on the upper side. 



1. Melica nutans, Linn. Mountain Melick. 



Root perennial, fibrous; stems several, about a foot high, 

 leafy, slender, and naked above, with rough angles ; leaves 

 lanceolate, flat, rough-edged, erect, smooth on the backs, 

 but hairy on the inner surface ; sheaths long, rough, striated, 

 upper one shorter than its leaf; inflorescence racemed, one- 

 sided, long, having about ten spikelets ; branches slender, 

 rough; spikelets large, pendulous, two-flowered; outer glumes 

 bright purple or brown, thin, and scale-like at the edges, 

 bluntish ; flowering glumes nearly as long as the outer ones, 



