Molinia.] gramine^. 593 



or concave, sprinkled with glandular dotsI)iit not downy, bluntish. Anthers pale 

 yellow. Germen oblong. Styles long, spreading ; stigmas elegantly feathered. 

 Scale very broad, truncate and entire, fleshy, half-surrounding the ovarium. 

 Abortive floret a pedicellate colourless valve, enclosing another, if not a third, rudi- 

 mentary floret like itself, the outermost embraced by the dorsal groove of the 

 superior palea of the perfect floret. 



This species, as growing exclusively in woods and shady places, is a grass of 

 no agricultural importance. 



XV. MoLiHiA, Moench. Molinia. 



"Panicle somewhat contracted or spreading. Spikelets awn- 

 less, oblong-cylindrical, with 1 — 5 (or more) perfect florets, and 

 usually a subulate rudimentary upper neuter one. Glumes 2, 

 acute, shorter than the florets, unequal, 1-nerved. Glumellas 2 ; 

 outer one rounded on the back, glabrous, entire at the end, at 

 length cartilaginous and covering the free caryopsis." — Br. Fl. 



1. M. ccerulea, Mcench. Purple Molinia. "Panicle erect 

 somewhat contracted, spikelets erect, outer glumella usually 

 3-nerved, culm with one knot near the base." — Br. Fl. p. 528. 

 Melica cserulea, L. : Host. Gram. Aust. ii. 7, t. 8. E. B. t. 750. 



/3. Leaves longer and less rigid, panicle green. M. (Enodium) caeruleum, var. 

 atrovirens, Duraort? 



On heaths, moors, and in barren sandy or gravelly pastures and woods. Fl. 

 July, August. If.. 



E. Med. — Abundant on Stapler's heath, Apse heath, and Lake common. 



W. jWerf.— Heathy places about Kingston and in Parkhurst forest, abundantly. 



|3. In shady situations. Plentifully on the Wilderness. Parkhurst forest, in 

 the flr-plantations. 



A hard, coarse, rigid grass, conspicuous for its dark bluish purple or violet hue. 

 Root of many yellowish, thick, flexuose, remarkably tough and wiry fibres. Culms 

 a foot to 3 feet high, erect, round, smooth, finely striated, bent below the single 

 tumid joint a little above the base. Leaves few, only near the base of the culm, 

 linear-lanceolate, tapering to a long point, bluish green, longer than their purplish 

 sheaths, ronghish, hairy or naked on the upper side, short and very rigid in a., 

 longer, narrower and more flexible in /S. Liyule a row of short bristles. Panicle 

 2 to 6 or 8 inches long, purple or green, spike-like, of many close-pressed wavy 

 branches, with rough, angular, partial stalks. Spikelets upright, linear, acute. 

 Glumes much shorter than the florets, inner one rather the longer of the two. 

 Palece unequal ; outer one 3-ribbed, acute ; inner 2-ribbed, flat, membranous, 

 slightly bifid. Stigmas short, but little branched, sometimes purple-coloured like 

 the anthers, a circumstance unusual, I believe, in grasses. Uppermost floret on a 

 hairy pedicel, empty or rudimentary. 



A large proportiou of the grass in Parkhurst forest consists of this species, 

 which, under the trees in the extensive plantations (principally fir) in that enclo- 

 sure, becomes far less rigid, with larger leaves, and with little or none of the usual 

 violet or deep purple of the plant in more open situations. I presume this to be 

 the Mol. (Enodium) cceruletim var. atrovirens of Dumortier. Like Catabrosa 

 aquatica, this plant has been the sport of system, having been a Melica, Aira, 

 Festuca, Poa, Arundo ; from its afiiuity to all uniting itself completely with none, 

 and hence properly made a genus apart. 



4 G 



