584 GRAMiNE^. [Milmm. 



brook farm. Cornfields at St. Helens. Very abundantly on the waste building- 

 lots at E. Cowes park, 1846. Fields and woods along the new road from VVoot- 

 ton bridge to King's quay, in abundance, 1848. Plentiful in a field at Beaper 

 farm, also in a wheat-stubble near Hardingshoot farm, 1848. Plentiful in a lay- 

 field on the North side of Coppid hall. In Whitefield wood, 1848. 



W. Med. — Frequent in cornfields about Cowes. In 1841 I found a large field 

 near Gurnet (arm nearly covered with it. A perfect weed in cornfields about 

 Freshwater, Thorley and Freshwater parish in some seasons. At Garrels, near 

 Newport. 



A most beautiful and elegant grass, whose pale green, tapering, spear-shaped 

 panicle shines with a satiny or silvery lustre, becoming grayish or yellowish as the 

 seed ripens. Root whitish, fibrous, and I have no doubt annual, though Hooker 

 marks it perennial. Culms numerous, 6 — 18 inches high, erect or spreading, 

 ascending at the base, round, smooth, shining and leafy. Leaves pale green, 

 linear, rough-edged, taper-pointed, with striated slightly tumid sheaths. Ligule 

 oblong, much torn and notched at the summit. Panicle 2 or 3 inches in length, 

 narrow and tapering, at first very compact or spicate, afterwards a little diffuse, of 

 many close-set, half-whorled, roughish and compound branches. Glumes une- 

 qual, very acute, single-ribbed, rough on the back, with white membranous edges, 

 suddenly dilating at the base into a membranous sac or cavity very like the 

 spatha of an Arum, and enclosing the solitary _^ore<. Palece much shorter than 

 the glumes, very broad and concave, nearly equal. Outer valve truncate, its 

 broad summit with several tooth-like notches, with or without an awn at some 

 distance below the top, and which usually exceeds the glumes ; inner valve 

 smaller, with a narrower bifid summit and awnless ; both are somewhat hairy at 

 the base, but I do not find them downy as Smith describes them. Stamens short, 

 with violet anthers. Styles distant ; stigmas short, somewhat erect, unbranched. 

 Seed enclosed in the hardened tumid base of the glumes. 



Smith says the awn is rarely wanting, but in my specimens it is as often absent 

 as present. The figure of this species in ' Flora Graeca' is scarcely given with 

 the usual attention to minuteness and accuracy so characteristic of that rare, ele- 

 gant and costly work, the glumes being there represented as simply acicular. 



This fine grass, though generally diffused over ihe island, is not equally abun- 

 dant every season in the same locality, being, like most aijnual plants, somewhat 

 capricious in its stations. 



j8. Panicle loose or spreading. 



VII. Milium, Linn- Millet-grass. 



"Panicle spreading. Spikelets somewhat dorsally compressed, 

 awnless. Glumes 2, nearly equal, flattisli, herbaceous, rather 

 acute, scarcely longer than the floret. Glumellas 2, nearly equal, 

 glabrous, at length hardened and enclosing the caryopsis. Neuter 

 florets 0."—Br. Fl. 



1. M. effusum, L. Spreading Millet-grass. Wood Millet-grass. 

 Panicle diffuse, florets ovate without awns. Sm. E. Fl. i. p. 87. 

 Br. Fl. p. 520. E. B. xvi. 1. 1106. Curt. Fl. Loud. fasc. 4, t. 12. 

 Curt. Br. Entom. xv. t. et fol. 710. Host. Gram. Aust. iii. 16, t. 

 22. 



In moist shady woods; not very common. i^A May, June. If. 



E. Med. — Frequent in some parts of Quarr copse. Between Ninham farm 

 and the Newport road, nearly opposite Quarr abbey. Shore copse, sparingly. 

 In Cowpit-cliff copse, Greatwood copse, and other hill-side copses between 

 Shanklin and Bonchurch, plentifully. Wood near Norris castle. Wood at Apse 

 caslle. In Knighton East wood, 1845; also in Inwards copse, sparingly, 1845. 



