TUFTED HAIR GRASS. 



121 



the level of the sea. Sheep eat it readily. Of little 

 value for cultivation. Fig. 93 represents it in blossom, 

 and Fig. 94 a magnified flower. 



Tufted Hair Grass 

 (Aira coespitosa) also be- 

 longs to this genus. 

 Stems erect, round, rough- 

 ish, in close tufts ; leaves 

 flat, linear, acute, with 

 roughish striated sheaths, 

 upper sheath longer than 

 its leaf; panicle pyram- 

 idal or oblong, large, at 

 first drooping, afterwards 

 erect, with its branches 

 spreading in every direc- 

 tion ; awn barely equal- 

 ling the palea; outer palea 

 of lower floret shorter 

 than the glumes ; mem- 

 branous, jagged, or four- 

 toothed, on the summit, 

 hairy at the base, with 

 slender awn rising from 

 a' little above the base, 

 and extending scarcely 

 above the palea. Dis- 

 tinguished from wood 

 hair grass in the awn 

 of the lower floret not 

 protruding beyond the 

 glumes of the calyx. 

 In wood hair grass 

 the awn of the lower 



Fig. 93. Wood Hair Grass. 

 11 



Fig. 94. 



