THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



II' 



Molinia. Plate xxxi. FESTUCE/E. 



95. ccernlea 36 in. Flying Bent. Stem solid. 



A moorland species growing more or less in the water around 

 pools and springs ; ranging through Europe and Temperate Asia. 

 August and September. Root peren- 

 nial, fibres long, tough, wiry and 

 yellowish. Stem solid, stiff, smooth, 

 bent at the only node, bare above, old 

 blades light and stripped oft by the 

 wind. Leaves chiefly radical, tapering 

 at base and sharply pointed, long, 

 rough towards the apex. Sheaths 

 bluish, uppermost smaller than its 

 leaf ; ligule a tuft of hairs. Panicle 

 narrow, erect, branches alternate, 

 angular, numerous, rough. Spikelets 

 numerous, erect, small, linear, florets 

 two or three. Glumes unequal, inner 

 the longer, smooth, lanceolate. Outer palea larger than glumes, 

 acute, smooth, awnless, ribs three or five ; inner palea flat, mem- 

 branous, ribs two with a bristle at the base in the uppermost floret. 

 Anthers large, purple. Seed fusiform, brownish or bluish, twice 

 as long as broad. 



Molinia ccerulea. 

 Spikelet. For Floret see p. 53. 



Variety — 

 M. depauperata. 



Spikelets with one floret ; outer palea 

 with five ribs. 



Nardus. Plate xvi. 

 50. stricta 



HORDED. 



unilateral and 



10 in. Mat Grass. Spike 



slender. 



Moors and mountain pastures of Europe and Asia up to the 



Arctic Circle ; by the margins of bogs, but never in the bogs, 



as it requires a dry soil. June to August. Root perennial, 



tufted, stringy, fan-shaped and deep, fibres many, short, thick, and 



