﻿GRASSES OF SCOTLAND. 63 



43. Sesleria cerulea. * 

 Blue Moor-Grass. 



Specific Characters. — Raceme oval. Outer palea toothed at the 

 summit. (Plate XXVII.) 



Description. — It grows from six to twelve inches high. The root 

 is perennial, creeping, throwing out long fibres. Stem slender, of a 

 light green, erect, round, and smooth, bearing three very short leaves 

 with smooth sheaths ; the upper sheath more than eight times the 

 length of its leaf, crowned with a short obtuse membranous ligule ; 

 the lower sheaths also longer than their leaves. Joints covered by 

 the sheaths, situated near the base. Leaves from the root rather 

 long, linear, and narrow, compressed when young, terminating in 

 a sharp point ; eleven-ribbed, the central rib the most prominent, 

 especially on the posterior surface ; the margins minutely toothed ; 

 slightly roughish on the inner surface, smooth and polished behind ; 

 those on the stem broad for their length, especially the two lower- 

 most, which are rather near together, the upper one situated about 

 the centre of the stem, the edges minutely serrated as well as the dor- 

 sal rib, which terminates in a minute point. Inflorescence racemed. 

 Raceme of an oval form, seldom exceeding half-an inch in length ; 

 of a bluish purple appearance. Spikelets imbricated on all sides of 

 the rachis, arranged mostly in pairs on very short footstalks ; of two 

 or three awned florets, protruding beyond the calyx, (Fig. 3.) Calyx 

 of two nearly equal acute broad membranous glumes, (Fig. 1), 

 without lateral ribs, and minutely toothed on the upper half of the 

 keels. Florets of two palese, (Fig. 2), the outer palea of lowermost 

 floret five-ribbed, four-toothed at the summit, the central rib rough 

 and terminating in a short awn. Inner palea linear, bifid at the 

 summit, about equal in length to the outer palea, furnished with two 

 green marginal ribs minutely fringed. Filaments three, capillary, 

 protruding beyond the palese. Anthers prominent, not quite the 

 length of the inner palea, linear, notched at each end, of a bleached 

 appearance. Ovarium, small, white, globose, pointed at the base, very 



* Sesleria coerulea, Koch, Smith, Hooker, Lindley. 



