53 



in light arable land, extend themselves rapidly in all directions 

 round the parent plant to the distance of many feet : Mr. Sinclair 

 has found them " five feet in length, the growth of a few months 

 only," and remarks that, when once in possession of the soil, they 

 cannot be expelled without great labour and expense ; the best mode 

 of doing so being to go over the field after ploughing, and coUect 

 them with the fork. Like the corresponding underground or sur- 

 face-creeping stems of other grasses of similar habit, these trouble- 

 some stolones, or roots as they are commonly regarded, abound in 

 nutritive matter, starch, sugar, &c. ; and, though not apparently 

 palatable to other animals constituting the well-fed stock of an 

 English farm, pigs are exceedingly fond of them, turning up the 

 soil in which they spread in their eagerness for the luscious repast. 



HoLcus LANATUS. Meadow Soft Grass. Plate XLVI. 



Panicle erect ; spreading when in flower. Upper glume obtuse, 

 with a small point or mucro. Awn of the upper flower curved in- 

 wards like a hook, not extended beyond the glumes, quite smooth 

 except towards the tip. Knots of the stem nearly smooth. Not 

 creeping. 



Holcus lanatus, Linncms. E. B. 1169; ed. 2. 111. Generally 

 adopted. 



Common in meadows and pastiu-es, and little less so in woods 

 and thickets. It forms tufts springing from a fibrous root, and 

 though the stems are sometimes decumbent at the lower part, they 

 exhibit no tendency to the creeping habit which so strikingly cha- 

 racterizes H. mollis. The height varies from a span to one or two 

 feet ; and the joints, though not devoid of pubesence, have not the 

 peculiar woolly or downy tufts by which those of the last species 

 are ordinarily distinguished. Independent of this, however, the 

 whole plant is more decidedly hairy, which renders the hue of both 

 leaves and stem pale or whitish green, and bestows upon them a 

 velvet-like softness to the touch, while a similar character extends 

 to the inflorescence, the glumes especially being covered with a 

 short down. Leaves usually broader than those of the Creeping Soft 

 Grass, and, perhaps, feeling rather rougher when passed through 

 the hand, in a direction opposite to the inclination of their hairy 

 covering. Sheaths inflated. Panicle dense, owing to the number 

 and repeated division of its branches and branchlets ; two to six 

 inches in length, and from an inch and a half to three inches or 

 more in breadth ; pale green, but often beautifully variegated with 

 white and pinkish purple. Upper glume terminated abruptly, but 

 with a projecting point or mucro at its apex. Both of the flowers 

 are supported upon very short stalks, but the upper one is not 



