60 



a point, and sometimes bifid ; keel and margins hairy. Flowers 

 generally exceeding the glumes in length. Lower palea ciliated, 

 jagged and toothed ; the teeth usually five, including the prolon- 

 gation of the mid-vein, which is more or less extended beyond the 

 apex: upper palea bifid at the extremity. Stigmas very long, 

 linear. 



Perennial. Flowers in April, or, in very elevated situations, in 

 May or June, and frequently again in September. 



A very beautiful Grass, and well deserving of a place in the 

 alpine garden or among rock-work, situations in which its bluish 

 shining spikes, and large, orange-yellow anthers tipped with purple, 

 are among the earliest indications of approaching summer. It is, 

 however, only under full exposure to sun and wind that the blue 

 hue of the inflorescence becomes at all a predominant feature. 



It is the most productive in foliage of all the alpine Grasses, 

 and, though distasteful to cattle generally, sheep will often climb 

 in search of it rocks so precipitous as to appear all but inaccessible ; 

 a circumstance not a little surprising when the extreme rigidity of 

 the leaves is considered, added to the fact that their margins and 

 mid-vein are furnished with siliceous serratures pointing upward, 

 like the teeth of a fine saw, and so sharp as to cut the hand 

 deeply when drawn through it in an opposite direction. 



Sesleria carulea has at first sight, perhaps, somewhat the aspect 

 of a Carex ; and when the rigid texture and jointless stem are 

 observed, a novice in Grass examination would be liable to regard 

 it as such, especially when, on further inspection, the leaf-sheaths 

 appear entire and the presence of the ligule equivocal. The 

 tubular character of the stem, however, which is not triangular, 

 the existence of at least one joint at its base, and, above all, the 

 structure of the flowers, will determine the question. To the 

 professed botanist, who may turn over our pages rather critically 

 than with the view of deriving beneflt from the consultation, these 

 remarks may appear superfluous ; but, as Carex ovalis was given 

 last May to a pupil of mine by a Fellow of a certain learned 

 Society, as a specimen of the Grass before us, the persevering 

 student will better appreciate their intended application. 



Genus 26. PANICUM. ECHINOCHLOA. Panick Grass. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence paniculate; branches spike-like, uni- 

 lateral in the mass and in each part. Spikelets all on one 

 side of the flattened partial rachis, two-flowered, the lower 

 flower imperfect. Glumes two ; the lower one small, three- 

 veined; the upper as long as the spikelet, five-veined, mu- 

 cronate or awned. Lower palea of the imperfect flower 



