and wiry. Leaves linear, nearly flat, taper-pointed, involute and 

 bristle-like, very rigid. Ligule oblong, pointed, often jagged. Panicle 

 erect, one to three inches long, with an angular or bordered rachis ; in 

 the larger plants with numerous short, alternately disposed, unilateral 

 branches, and a lanceolate or linear-lanceolate general outline ; in 

 smaller, the spikelets are sometimes sessile, and the general mass of 

 inflorescence so compact as to present the appearance of a spike. 

 Spikelets linear, compressed, with usually about eight rather loosely- 

 disposed flowers. Glumes without lateral veins, acute, unequal ; the 

 upper one reaching to the base of the third flower. Lower palea five- 

 veined, the marginal veins usually broad and distinct, the intermediate 

 ones scarcely perceptible, the central one extending into a very short 

 but obvious muoro. 



Annual. Flowers in June and July, soon after which the foliage 

 dries up and becomes bleached, while the rigid wire-like stems assume 

 a dark red or purple hue, and continue long after the scattering of the 

 seed has taken place. 



Where this grass grows about rabbit-warrenfe, which is the case in 

 some sandy districts towards the sea, the young foliage is often cropped 

 by the animals, but apparently rather in default of more succulent 

 herbage at the period, than in consequence of any instinctive fondness 

 for it as food. 



Without very strict attention to their respective descriptions, small 

 specimens of S. rigida are liable to be mistaken for the next species 

 S. loliacea, between which and the present there is considerable diffi- 

 culty in establishing determinate characters of distinction, although the 

 latter-named plant was, until recently, referred to a widely-separated 

 genus. So uncertain are our existing means of classification. 



The geographical distribution of S. rigida does not appear to be a 

 very wide one, being, exclusive of its British habitats, limited to 

 central and southern Europe, and the basin of the Mediterranean. 

 In these islands it can only be regarded as a common plant in the 

 south of England and Ireland. In Scotland, it is only of local occur- 

 rence, and chiefly in the vicinity of Edinburgh ; nor is it found at any 

 considerable elevation above the sea-level in countries farther south. 



ScLERocHLOA LOLIACEA. Dwarf Hard Grass. Plate LXXIII. 



Panicle unilateral, racemose, or spike-like, erect, or slightly curved. 

 Spikelets oblong-ovate, many flowered. Upper glume reaching to the 

 base of the fourth flower. Lower palea obtuse, terminating with a 

 mucro. Root flbrous. 



Sclerochloa loliacea. Woods. Babington. Triticum loliaceum, E. B. 

 221; ed. 2. 181. Catapodium loliaceum, imdZey. Poa loliacea, 

 Hudson. Hooker and Arnott. Parnell. 



A grass of the sea-side, growing in tufts in the crevices of rocks, 

 and on sandy shores, often within reach of the tide, especially along 

 the coast of England; less common in Scotland and Ireland, but 



