THE SEEDS OF THE GRASSES. 153 



(Medicago saliva) with large yellowish seeds, and trefoil (M. lupu- 

 lina) with large brownish seeds, oval like those of the other ; 

 bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) with small, round, dark- 

 brown seeds ; sheep's parsley (Petroselinum sativum) with large 

 curved, dark grey seeds ; and yarrow (Achillea millefolium) with 

 narrow, thin, grey transparent seeds ; the grasses being a selection 

 from the six fescues — meadow fescue (Festuca elatior and F. 

 pratensis) and sheep's fescue (F. ovina) and its hard, red, and 

 various-leaved varieties (F. duriuscula, F. rubra, and F. rubra 

 heterophylla) — the two rye grasses (Lolium perenne and 

 L. italicum), cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata), timothy (Phleum 

 pratense), meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), florin (Agrostis 

 alba var. stolonifera), dog's-tail (Cynosarus cristatus), the smooth 

 meadow-grass (Poa pratensis) , the rough meadow-grass (Poa 

 tvivialis), and vernal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), together 

 with accidentals which are often, not always in fairness, described 

 as adulterants. 



Of these sixteen grasses, vernal, though in small quantities, 

 can be picked out at once. There is no mistaking the rich, 

 deep chestnut of the whole spikelet minus the glumes in which it 

 comes to market, pale tipped and thickly haired, one awn straight 

 the other kneed, the well-hidden grain being smooth, fusiform, 

 and laterally compressed ; and the rather more useless German 

 substitute Pud's vernal (A. puelii) is as easy of identification, 

 the awns being longer and slenderer and the hairs light brown 

 instead of dark brown. Timothy seed also has a character of 

 its own. The difference between it and vernal is great, one 

 looking like a mass of chaff, the other like a seed, small, ovoid, 

 lightly pitted, twice as long as broad, pointed at base, pale 

 greyish brown in colour, more silvery when scantily wrapped in 

 its palea, as it frequently is, though still retaining its seed-like 

 appearance. 



Meadow foxtail, too, has a seed which once seen is never 

 forgotten — whitish-grey husks 'about a quarter of an inch long, 

 the whole spikelet with the straight awn of the flowering period 

 twisted and bent as maturity was reached, the silvery glumes 

 with the hairy keel by which the spikelets cling to each other, 





