45 



Aira flexuosa, Linnam. E. B. 1519; ed. 3. 106. Generally 

 adopted. 



Abundant on heaths and dry upland pastures throughout the 

 kingdom. It forms somewhat creeping tufts of nearly smooth, 

 narrow, bristle-like leaves, among which rise numerous slender, 

 wiry stems about a foot in height. Panicle two or three inches 

 long, spreading when in flower ; its rachis and branches more or 

 less waved or zigzag. Spikelets glossy, purplish, chiefly directed 

 to one side. Awn knee-bent, half as long again as the palea. 



Perennial. Flowers in July and August. 



A variety with smaller and more compact panicle, and with the 

 lower flower a little longer than the glumes, was A. montana of 

 some of our older botanists. 



It is not a grass deserving any attention in cultivation, but in 

 the dry natural pastures where it flourishes the sheep seldom allow 

 it to flower. 



** Lower palea bifid at the apex : both hardening and enclosing 

 the fruit. Airopsis, Fries. 



Aira caryophyllea. Silvery Hair Grass. Plate XXXIX. 



Panicle spreading, with ternate branches. Spikelets rounded 

 below. Flowers two, shorter than the glumes. Awn arising from 

 below the middle of the lower palea, and extending beyond the 

 glumes. Leaves short, narrow. 



Aira caryophyllea, Linnaus. E. B. 812 ; ed. 3. 109. Generally 

 adopted by British botanists. Avena, Koch. 



Common on dry sandy or gravelly heaths and pastures, where 

 its slender stems vary in height from two or three inches to a foot. 

 Leaves very few, narrow, sometimes almost bristle-like; their 

 sheaths rough. Panicle spreading in maturity ; its branches grow- 

 ing by threes and dividing on the same plan, very slender, often 

 slightly flexuose, but never zigzag hke those of A. flexuosa. 

 Spikelets small, silvery-grey, obtuse or rounded at the base; two- 

 flowered, without any rudiment of a third. Flowers destitute, or 

 nearly so, of hairs at the base. Glumes ovato-lanceolate, pellucid 

 at the upper part. Palese hardening eventually over the ripening 

 fruit. Awn twice as long as the bifid lower palea from below the 

 middle of which it arises. 



Annual. Flowers in June and July. 



A very elegant and ornamental grass, but its foliage is so scanty 

 as to yield little nutriment, and place it beyond the pale of culti- 

 vation. 



