7 6 



THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



pair with three ribs and awned, awn twisted and straight, margins 

 turned in, enclosing the floret. Outer palea of barren florets 



awned from base, inner awned from 

 the back. Paleae of middle floret 

 glabrous, shorter than those of the 

 barren florets, equal in length but the 

 outer larger and deeper than the 

 inner. Stamens two. 



Variety — 

 A. puelii. 



Slender, stems numer- 

 ous, branching from 

 base ; awn long. 



Vernal Grass is a hardy perennial 



A nthoxanthum odoratum. 



spikeiet. For Floret see P . 6 3 . coming into flower in April and grow- 

 ing till late in the autumn. It has a 

 strong scent of new-mown hay, and though cut for hay is really 

 worth more as pasture. The aftermath is more valuable than 

 the first crop. It does better with other grasses than by 

 itself, thriving in deep, moist soils and marshy places, becoming 

 reed-like where the conditions are suitable. It does well under 

 the shade of trees and will live in thin soils which no other 

 grass will endure ; and it is said to discourage the growth of 

 moss. All fertilisers are wasted on it. Sinclair calculated that 

 there are 37,156,680 of its brown, glossy, ungrooved seeds to 

 the bushel, which weighs 49 pounds, and that its young 

 plants grow five to the square inch. In woods its anthers 

 are said to be always purple, in meadows yellow, but there 

 are evidently exceptions. Its name, the yellow-flowered, is fully 

 justified, for as a rule the inflorescence is noticeably yellower 

 than that of most of our grasses. Its reputation as a profitable 

 grass is very different to what it used to be, and in seed mixtures 

 now sold for laying pastures it is either represented by an 

 insignificant quantity or omitted altogether. The anthers, 

 unlike those of many grasses, open for a time above the 

 stigmas, thus insuring self-fertilisation, and then sink below 



hem. 



