39 



IB the smaller ; b is the solitary flower, exhibiting the nearly equal 

 size of the palese, the insertion of the long, rough awn, and the 

 form of the anthers. 



Annual. Flowers from June to August. 



Where found, it is generally abundant, and easily recognized at 

 a considerable distance by the delicacy of its ample, glossy, and 

 silk-like inflorescence, agitated by every breath of air. It is one 

 of the most beautiful of our grasses, and deserving a place in every 

 flower-garden, growing readily from seed, which ripens about the 

 end of August. 



It is not of any agricultural value, dying away early in the 

 season, in most instances before the ripening of its seed, as occurs 

 with many annual grasses which vegetate in dry situations. 



Apera inteerupta. Dense-flowered Wind Grass. Plate 

 XXXIV. 



Panicle slender; its branches directed upwards. Anthers round- 

 ish oval. 



Apera interrupta, Beauvois, Bahington. E. B. Supp. 2951. 

 Agrostis interrupta, Linnceus, Hooker and Amott. Anema- 

 grostis, Trinius. 



First noticed wild in England growing near Thetford, Norfolk, 

 in June 1847, by the Rev. W. W, Newbould ; since met with in 

 Cambridgeshire and elsewhere. It seems confined to sandy dis- 

 tricts, and to flourish in more arid situations than A. Spica-venti, 

 as supposed meagre specimens of which it had probably been over- 

 looked by previous botanists in the few habitats hitherto recorded. 

 Stems often several from the same root, rarely more than a foot in 

 height, and often only a few inches. Panicle-branches rising 

 almost parallel with the rachis, never spreading as in the preceding 

 species ; growing in imperfect whorls, which, being distant from 

 each other, especially at the lower part of the contracted panicle, 

 give the latter the appearance of division into stages, whence the 

 Latin name, interrupta. The flowers correspond in structure with 

 those of the Spreading Wind Grass, except in the form of the an- 

 thers, which, as shown in figure b, are proportionally shorter, their 

 length and diameter being nearly equal. The greater length of 

 the awn and more spreading stigmas are features Uable to vary. 

 Figure c shows the stalk-Kke rudiment of the second flower ob- 

 servable in the spikelets of this genus. 



Annual. Flowers in June and July. 



Long recognized as a distinct species in central and southern 

 Europe, from which its rarity in our island seems to indicate it an 

 accidental wanderer. We must, I suppose, admit its claim to rank 



