137 



BKIZA MINOR. 



LiNNa;TTs. Hooker and Aknott. J. E. Smith. Pabnell. 

 Babington. Withbeing. Koch. Kunth. Reichenbach. Deakin. 



WlILDENOW. SCHKADEE. HoST. 



Hudson. Htjli,. Dickson. Maceeight. Ealfs. 



PLATE XLIII. 

 Briza aspera, Knapp. 



The Small Quaking Grass. 



Briza — To droop. Minor — Less. 



An exceedingly rare grass, found near Bath, iu Cornwall, 

 and at Clifton, Nottinghamshire. 



Native of Guernsey, Jersey, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, 

 Portugal, Germany, Turkey, Greece, and Northern Africa. 



It grows in dry sandy pastures. 



Stem circular, smooth, and hollow, carrying five or six flat, 

 acute, roughish leaves, with smooth striated sheaths, upper one 

 extending beyond its leaf. Joints five in number. Inflorescence 

 compound-panicled, with roughish slender branches. Spikelets 

 triangular, compressed, green, white, and purple in colour, con- 

 sisting of two glumes and five or six florets. Glumes equal, 

 broad, three-ribbed. Florets consisting of two unequal paleae; 

 exterior one of basal floret broad, gibbous behind, margin mem- 

 branous, destitute of lateral ribs; inner palea flat, and having 

 two broad green ribs. Styles two. Stigmas plumose. Filaments 

 three. Anthers notched at either extremity. 



Flowers in July, seeds ripen at the end of August. 



The specimen illustrated was gathered at Penzance, by Mr. 

 Joseph Sidebotham, of Manchester. 



