63 



AGROSTIS SPICA-VENTI. 



LiNNJEus. HooEEB AND Aenott. Smith. Hudson, Lbees. Koch. 

 Oedee. Withbeino. HtJLIi. 

 E.ELHAN. Abbot. Willdenow. Knapp. Scheadbe. 



PLATE XVIII. — B. 



Anemagrostii spica-venti, Paeneli. Lindlet. 



Oramen harundinaaeum, Geeabde. 



The Spreading Silky Bent Grass. 



Agrostis — ^A Field. Spica-venti — Wavy spike. 



This beautiful Grass is by no means a common species, 

 although it has been procured in the counties of Kent, Surrey, 

 Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, 

 Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, 

 Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland. In Scotland it is 

 one of the rarest Grasses, being only found on the Fifeshire 

 coast. 



Abroad it is procured in the middle and south of Europe. 



Grows in light sandy soil, more particularly in fields that 

 are sometimes flooded. 



Root annual and fibrous. Stem upright, smooth, circular, 

 carrying five narrow, acute, spreading, rough, ribbed leaves, 

 with roughish sheaths j the upper one extending beyond its leaf, 

 and having a lengthy, lanceolate, jagged ligule at its apex. 

 Joints naked. Inflorescence compound panicled, spreading, and 

 loose. Panicle of great size, glossy, with slender, rough, sub- 

 divided branches disposed in alternate clusters, the centre one 

 being the longest. Eachis usually smooth. Spikelets numerous, 

 diminutive, of one awned floret of the same length as the calyx. 



