First noticed as a native of Britain in September 1844, by Mr. 

 W. Borrer, by whom it was discovered at Henfield, Sussex, " where 

 it grows in several places within the edges of marsh-ditches in the 

 Level, the open marshes drained by the river Adur :" since met 

 with in similar situations in Surrey and Hampshire. Stems form- 

 ing tufts, about two feet high, smooth, except at the joints, which 

 are clothed with short deflexed hairs : though generally erect, they 

 have a tendency to become decumbent and root at the lower part, 

 and numerous horizontal suckers, extending from the base of the 

 tuft, render it easy of propagation. Leaves spreading, broad, flat, 

 strongly veined, rough, especially on the margins, yellowish-green, 

 slightly glaucous. Ligule short, abrupt. Panicle, when developed, 

 laxj its rachis and spreading branches more or less zigzag, waved 

 or curled, slender, rough. Flowers compressed, solitary, without 

 glumes ; palese carinate ; the outer one broad, with five green veins, 

 those of the keel and margins especially ciliated with strong 

 bristles ; the inner palea linear, less deeply veined, and with its 

 margins diaphanous and inflexed. Stigmas plumose, with branched 

 hairs. Fruit enclosed within the persistent dried palese, but not 

 cohering with them. The flowers are often imperfect. 



Indigenous to a warmer and continental climate, this grass 

 rarely, if ever, protrudes its inflorescence in England : it may, 

 however, be found about the end of August enclosed within the 

 inflated sheath of the uppermost leaf, and occasionally even with a 

 few flowers pushing forth, to fall off probably without maturing. 

 Our figure represents a more advanced state, and, with the magni- 

 fied views of the floral structure, will furnish the home botanist 

 with the aspect and features which a more congenial residence 

 would elicit in the grass before us. 



The species is widely distributed over the temperate and warmer 

 countries of the northern hemisphere, on both sides of the Atlantic, 

 but must be regarded as an alien in the flora of our island, where 

 the mean temperature of the summer seems too low to admit of 

 the maturation of its seeds. 



Genus 4. ALOPECURUS. Fox-tail Grass. 



Gen. Chab. Inflorescence compact, spike-like. Spikelets late- 

 rally compressed, with two nearly equal glumes generally 

 united at the base, one-flowered. Flower with a single palea, 

 which is five-veined and awned from the base. Stigmas 

 filiform. 

 The grasses of this genus may be generally recognized by their 

 elongated, hairy inflorescence, which is soft to the touch ; but they 

 correspond, in aspect, too nearly with those of the genus Phleum 

 to be determined without reference to the generic character. The 



