THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



103 



The soft and downy Yorkshire 

 Fog is not so purple and rosy in 

 the shade as it is in the sun, and 

 always has a greyish look. It used 

 to be thought much more of than 

 it is now. It grows tallest in 

 woodland clearings, is productive 

 and easy of cultivation, yields seed 

 in profusion, flowers late, ripens 

 quickly, does best in light flinty 

 soils, is difficult to get rid of, 

 and apt to crowd out more valu- 

 able grasses. In New Zealand it is 

 sown for producing herbage earlier than any other species. 



Holcus lanatus. 

 Spikelet. For Floret see p. 



46. H. mollis. Meadows of Europe and Russian Asia. 

 July and August. Root perennial, deep, creeping widely, not 

 tufted. Stem erect, slender, downy ; nodes four, bearded ; shoot 

 with two rows of leaves. Leaves flat, linear, flaccid, rather 

 broad, pointed, downy on both sides, dull green. Sheaths white 

 with red veins, nearly smooth, uppermost longer than leaf ; 

 ligule short, oblong and hairy. Panicle spreading when in flower, 

 erect, branches in pairs. Spikelets with two florets, upper barren, 

 lower perfect, mostly erect. Glumes unequal, acute, hairy, inner 

 glume the broader and longer, ribs three, outer glume not ribbed. 

 Outer palea half as long as glumes on lower floret, having three 

 hairs at the base, in upper floret having a long stalk with six or 

 more hairs at base and a long straight awn rising from near the 

 apex, rough for more than half its length from its point ; inner 

 palea nearly as long as outer palea, blunt, edges fringed. 



The Soft Grass has more pointed spikelets and a slenderer 

 habit than the other British representative of the genus. It is 

 the couch grass of light soils, the roots going five feet down, and 

 is very late in reaching maturity. There are eight species of 

 Holcus altogether, one of which is native of Cape Colony, the 

 others being mainly European and North African, especially the 

 western part. 



